Nigeria keeps mum on new human bird flu tests
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with more detail) By Felix Onuah ABUJA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A laboratory in Nigeria on Tuesday ran new tests for the deadly bird flu virus on samples from 14 people after earlier checks proved inconclusive, but health officials declined to release the results. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, was the first on the continent to detect bird flu in poultry last year but it has not had a confirmed human case. David Olaleye, a World Health Organisation scientist involved in testing at a laboratory in the capital Abuja, declined to comment on the results of Tuesday's tests on samples taken from 14 people, including three people who died. It was the fourth round of tests on the samples and had been expected to clarify whether the H5N1 virus was present. Two initial tests over the weekend proved negative, but results from a third round on Monday produced a pattern that was "unreliable" and did not allow experts to make a clear call, Olaleye said. Olaleye said some of Monday's results had shown positive and some negative for H5N1 but that the data were not reliable. He did not comment on Tuesday's results. LONDON Information Minister Frank Nweke said there was no confirmed human case yet and samples from two of the three dead people, a mother and daughter in Lagos, would be sent to London for tests. "Scientists are reviewing testing of samples taken from some people who died in Lagos who are suspected to have been killed by the human strain of the flu. Right now we are waiting for the confirmation of the findings," he said after a cabinet meeting. Definitive results will be released on Wednesday or Thursday, he added. The World Health Organisation in Switzerland said results in Nigeria had so far been inconclusive and they were trying to get samples to London for testing as soon as possible. Results from there will not be available for two or three days. The H5N1 strain of bird flu remains primarily an animal disease but it can kill people who come into close contact with infected birds. It has killed 164 people around the globe since 2003 and experts fear it could spark a deadly pandemic if it mutates into a form that passes easily from person to person. Nigeria detected bird flu in chicken in northern Kaduna state a year ago. The virus has since spread to 17 of Nigeria's 36 states despite measures such as culling, quarantine and bans on transporting live poultry. (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja, Tom Ashby in Lagos)
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