Pakistani capital shaken, stirred over bird flu

ISLAMABAD, Apr 25 (Reuters) ''Bird Flu Restricted Area'' read the sign in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Islamabad.

Shopkeeper Mohammad Afzul wasn't going beyond that point.

''I'm scared of virus. I have my small farm with a flock of about 4,000 birds just 15 km from here. The virus might be transmitted to them from me.'' Pakistani authorities today confirmed that the number of poultry farms infected with the deadly H5N1 virus near the capital had risen to 11, and tests are pending on a handful of others.

They were all in Tarlai and Sihala, two neighbourhoods where there is a concentration of small farms supplying eggs and meat to Islamabad and adjacent Rawalpindi.

''The situation is worrisome. It has just started, it is just developing,'' said an international consultant, who requested anonymity. So far, no humans are known to have been infected in Pakistan.

Agriculture Ministry officials said every farm in the environs of Islamabad and Rawalpindi was being checked, flocks were being vaccinated and movement of birds from both cities had been banned by the Punjab provincial government.

''If we get any clinical clue, we just go for culling,'' said Ismail Qureshi, a permanent secretary at the ministry.

''We have so far culled around 60,000 birds.'' Lines of parked trucks with empty wire cages on the roadside at Tarlai testified to the reduced movement in birds.

Plummeting prices for chicken meat also showed Pakistanis were shunning one of their favourite foods.

But one dealer with a shop close to the restricted area said chickens were still being sold to buyers in neighbouring North West Frontier Province.

''Rates have been reduced, but we are still doing business and sending chickens to Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and so on,'' Malik Qamar told Reuters.

ISOLATION WARDS Despite the outbreaks on the doorstep of major population centres and several suspected human cases, no one in Pakistan has been confirmed infected with a disease that scientists fear could develop into a pandemic capable of killing millions.

They worry that the virus could mutate into a form that jumps easily between people. So far only 204 people are known to have been infected worldwide. Of these, 113 have died.

''The Ministry of Health has organised in all the hospitals isolation wards. So if tomorrow, God forbid, anything happens... everything is organised,'' said Khalif Bile Mohamud, the World Health Organisation's country representative in Pakistan.

The H5N1 strain has spread across Asia and into parts of the West Asia, Africa and Europe and surfaced in South Asia this year.

Pakistan's reported its first cases of H5NI in birds on two farms in North West Frontier Province in February.

Whenever an outbreak is identified, health ministry workers scour homes and workplaces in a 3 km radius around the farm, looking for people suffering from unexplained fever.

Tests will show within 24 hours whether there is anything to worry about, according to Mohamud.

Housewife Naila Qamar wasn't perturbed even though she lives on the edge of a restricted zone.

''Look. Look. Our freezers are full of chickens. We are eating. Nothing happened to us. We are healthy in front of you,'' she laughed, pulling open her fridge door.

Reuters SHB VP2112