A total of 215 people have died due to officially confirmed cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) infection in different countries since 2003. Of these, six deaths have been reported in the first three months of this year, with four deaths in China and two in Vietnam.
The latest confirmed human case of the dreaded H5N1 strain of this virus was reported in Egypt on March 23, where a 38-year-old woman tested positive.
| DEADLY NUMBERS Confirmed human cases of avian influenza (H5N1) | ||
| YEAR | CASES | DEATHS |
| 2003 | 4 | 4 |
| 2004 | 46 | 32 |
| 2005 | 98 | 43 |
| 2006 | 115 | 79 |
| 2007 | 88 | 59 |
| 2008 | 44 | 33 |
| 2009 (till March) | 18 | 6 |
| Total | 413 | 256 |
| Source: WHO | ||
The data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that 413 people have fallen victim to the transmigration of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza from poultry birds to human beings since 2003. Of these, 18 incidents of people testing positive to H5N1 virus have been reported this year.
This deadly infection of poultry birds has spread to nearly 15 countries, mostly in Asia, ever since it was first detected among farmed geese in the Guangdong province of China in 1996. The poultry industry in these countries has been severely hit over these years.
Though the incidence of transmission of bird flu virus to humans had peaked in 2006 and has been on the decline subsequently, the H5N1 infection is still alive in several countries, including China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and a few others.
In India, too, several outbreaks of poultry influenza have been reported since 2006 in different parts of the country. In recent months, the disease has surfaced in some areas of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. However, the country has remained free of any human case so far.
These outbreaks are reckoned to have collectively caused a loss of around Rs 10,000 crore to the poultry industry in terms of loss of production, marketing and destruction (culling) of poultry birds in the areas surrounding the disease epicentres. The organised poultry industry is currently estimated to be worth over Rs 30,000 crore.
According to the WHO,the maximum human casualty due to H5N1 influenza virus has been recorded in Indonesia, where 141 cases have tested positive and as many of 115 of them have lost their lives.
The second largest number of human cases, 109, has been reported from Vietnam with as many as 54 deaths.
The other countries with substantial human casualty, including mortality, are Egypt (60 cases with 23 deaths), China (38 cases with 25 deaths), Thailand (25 cases with 17 deaths) and Turkey (12 cases with four deaths), Cambodia (eight cases with seven deaths) and Azerbaijan (eight cases with five deaths).
