20 CONTACTS OF SUSPECTED BIRD FLU VICTIM TRACED

GURUGRAM: Officials of the district health department said that they have identified about 20 close contacts of an 11-year-old city resident who is suspected to have died of bird flu or avian influenza (H5N1) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on July 11.

Officials said that the cause of his death is unclear, as he was also suffering from leukaemia. He was a resident of Chakkarpur in Gurugram, according to the district health department officials. Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer of Gurugram district, said, “The sample has been tested positive for H5N1 by National Institute of Virology on Sunday, but AIIMS-Delhi has to give its final report. The health team at the district level has identified five family members and 15 other people who were in close contact with the diseased. Medicines have been provided to them.”

On Tuesday, a team from the National Centre for Disease Control also visited the area to investigate the matter. Yadav said, “In the contact tracing exercise, 82 people have been identified. The health teams are also surveying over 15,000 people living in the area. As per the investigation till now, the maternal grandmother of the boy had a meat shop.”

As reported by Hindustan Times on Tuesday, AIIMS director, Dr Randeep Guleria, said that it is likely to be the country’s first documented case and death of the bird flu infection in humans. “There is still no clarity on how the boy contracted the virus. He was a leukaemia patient admitted to AIIMS on June 12. Later, he was discharged and admitted again on July 8. The boy died on July 11, but it is difficult to comment on the cause of the death,” said Yadav.