Bird flu rampages across West Africa
Fears mount that highly infectious bug might spread to humans if left unchecked
SAO PAULO: Their fingers speedily working away, the competitors line the bright colours of their Rubik’s Cubes as fast as they can, racing against the clock.
Some use the traditional 3x3x3 puzzle. Others try variations, completing differently-sized cubes blindfolded, with their feet or one hand.
Fans of the colourful puzzle gathered in Sao Paulo at the weekend for the Rubik’s Cube World Championship for some speed cubing.
The Rubik’s Cube World Championship was first held in Budapest in 1982 and now draws participants from around the world.
On Sunday, Australian Feliks Zemdegs took the world title for a second time, successfully completing the traditional 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube in 5.695 seconds.
The world record is held by Collin Burns, who solved the puzzle in 5.25 seconds earlier this year.
AHIGHLY contagious strain of avian flu is spreading across West Africa, decimating poultry farms and stoking fears the virus will jump from birds to humans, the UN’s food agency yesterday warned.
Markets and farms in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana have been hit with the deadly H5N1 virus over the past six months, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
If the virus continues to spread, it could affect more than 330 million people across West Africa, hurting food security and human health in a region still recovering from the Ebola crisis.
“Urgent action is needed to strengthen veterinary investigation and reporting systems… to tackle the disease at the root, before there is a spillover to humans,” Juan Lubroth, head of the FAO’s animal health division, said.
In Nigeria, 1.6 million birds have been killed by the virus or culled to stop its spread since last year, the FAO said, damaging the economy and robbing citizens of a relatively cheap source of protein.
H5N1 bird flu first infected humans in 1997 in Hong Kong. It has since spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and has become entrenched in poultry in some countries, causing millions of bird infections and several hundred human deaths.
Other West African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Mali and Togo have not identified bird flu cases and need to continue monitoring the situation to help prevent its spread, the FAO said.
Local veterinary officials have been urged by the UN to try to trace where infected animals were sold to find sources of the outbreak in order to halt its spread.
Poultry production has grown rapidly across West Africa in the past decade, and the Ivory Coast has seen output expand by more than 60 percent, but regulatory systems haven’t kept pace, the FAO said.
The organisation is asking donors for $20 million (R249 million) to respond to the outbreak and to help prevent its spread.
The H5N1 bird flu virus is highly contagious and is transmittable to humans. According to the World Health Organisation, 447 people across the world have died from it since 2003. This year, 133 human cases and 37 deaths have been reported in Egypt, site of the most serious current outbreak.
“Avian flu (in West Africa) could trigger a mass die-off of chicken – a nutritious and inexpensive source of food for many people – with detrimental impacts on diets and on the economy of the region, exacerbating an already difficult situation,” FAO said.
“Urgent action is needed to strengthen veterinary investigation and reporting systems in the region and tackle the disease at the root, before there is a spillover to humans,” Juan Lubroth, Chief of FAO’s Animal Health Service Division, said.
FAO said the H5N1 virus was first detected in West Africa in 2006 and eradicated two years later.
It reappeared in Nigeria late last year, has spread to Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana, leading to the death by culling or from infection of more than 1.6 million birds, and may also infect Benin, Cameroon, Mali and Togo.
“We are looking at a disease that has already spread to five countries in six months.
“We have to make a concerted effort to stop it in its tracks and we have to do it now,” said Lubroth. – Reuters