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Friday, March 29, 2024

Bird flu over soon – Ecija

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CABANATUAN CITY”•Nueva Ecija Gov. Czarina Umali said Sunday the Influenza virus that hit the province would be over soon.

Thirty-four workers from Pampanga and Nueva Ecija who were suspected to have been infected with the avian flu had tested negative for the A(H5N6) strain that recently hit the poultry industry, the Health department said.

The department was able to identify 34 suspected cases”•30 from Pampanga and four from Nueva Ecija as of Aug. 24″•after the outbreak in San Luis, Pampanga, and in Jaen and San Isidro in Nueva Ecija was reported by the Agriculture department.

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial told reporters the 34 workers were “promptly placed in isolation as part of the precautionary measures to avert any possible human-to-human transmission of infection.”

She said the 34 were placed in isolation to ease the public’s fear of the problem. 

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“They were also started on the antiviral Oseltamivir while waiting for the laboratory results from RITM [Research Institute for Tropical Medicine],” Ubial said.

She said the bird-to-human transmission of the virus could happen through direct contact with live birds infected with the virus through fluid secretions.

Humans infected with avian influenza A(H5N6) virus could suffer flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, cold, fatigue, muscle pain, shortness of breath and sometimes diarrhea.

Ubial also cited records from the World Health Organization saying when the virus hit China in 2014, only two out of 20 people infected died.

“For humans, this A(H5N6) is not that fatal as opposed to other types of avian influenza like in H1N1, when a 50-percent mortality rate was recorded,” Ubial said.

She reminded the public to avoid direct contact with infected fowl and practice frequent hand-washing to avoid contracting the virus.

She also advised farm workers to use personal protective equipment and disinfect more often using one liter of water with one milliliter of bleach.

Transmission of the bird flu virus is also not possible through eating cooked chicken and eggs, Ubial said.

But she reminded the public to cook poultry products well and separate raw from cooked meat.

Meanwhile, Ubial announced that her department had designated the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Medical Center in San Fernando, Pampanga, and the Paulino Garcia Memorial and Research Medical Center in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, as referral hospitals for the assessment of suspected cases and collection of specimens for laboratory diagnosis.

“I have ordered the formulation of the interim guidelines, standards and other instructions in the implementation of the Enhanced Human Avian Flu Surveillance Management and Infection Control in the Health Setting,” Ubial said.

“Further, I directed the preemptive positioning of necessary commodities to protect against bird flu transmission to humans such as PPE and antiviral medicines to DoH Regional Office 3.” 

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