Nigeria fears bird flu has spread to humans
KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigerian health officials waited anxiously on Sunday for test results on two children feared to be the first Africans infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.
The virus broke out in early January among poultry in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, but the H5N1 diagnosis was confirmed only last week and authorities are struggling to contain it as it spreads rapidly to farms across the north.
The father of the two children -- a 4-year-old boy and a baby boy of four months -- said they got a very high temperature and coughed up blood two weeks ago when all 250 of his geese, turkey and chickens died suddenly.
"The two of them were coughing and if they sneezed, blood came from their nose and throat," Isaac Achi said.
"I took them to the hospital, and they recovered. It happened when all the birds in our surroundings died. My wife also complained of chest pains," he said, adding that the elder boy was now back at school.
The Achi family home is close to a farm where the H5N1 virus was confirmed.
Health Ministry official Abdulsalam Nasidi visited the children on Sunday and took away a blood sample, which is to be analyzed at a specialist laboratory in nearby Plateau state.
People can catch the virus, which has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since early 2003, from contact with infected birds, but it cannot yet be spread from one human to another.
But experts fear the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain may mutate into a form that can spread from human to human and cause a global flu pandemic that could kill millions. (Watch how bird flu is spreading across continents -- 2:08)
The outbreak of H5N1 in Nigeria is the first known appearance of the virus in Africa.
Although only four farms in three northern Nigerian states have confirmation of H5N1, officials believe more than 20 farms have been hit in Kano state alone.
Farmers in three other northern states have also reported mass deaths of poultry, local media reported.
Farmers have received little information on how to handle the disease and workers have been using their bare hands to dispose of thousands of sick birds, raising fears of a large number of human infections.
"This is an emergency situation and it is very important to stop the handling, trading and movement of birds," said Mohammed Belhoecine, Nigeria representative of the World Health Organization.
Trade in live birds continued in northern cities, although sellers in Kano complained of falling sales on Sunday.
"I used to sell 50 to 60 birds a day, but now can't sell more than four because of bird flu," said Ibrahim Maikanti, a chicken seller at Kano's Sabon Gari market.
As in most of sub-Saharan Africa, poultry are everywhere in Nigeria -- backyards, city streets, by the side of the road, in crowded markets, on buses. Most poultry is bought live and slaughtered at home.
The government has ordered suspect birds culled and suspect farms quarantined, but there has been only limited government action on the ground so far.
An Agriculture Ministry team set out from Kano city to slaughter chickens in three farms on Sunday and said 100,000 birds had been killed in the state so far.
"It's a colossal loss. In economic terms, the farmers are in a big mess," said Shehu Bawa, a ministry official.