An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the Avian flu was reported Friday at a poultry farm in Karachi, where over 5,000 infected chickens have died. Health officials are ruling out the possibility of human infection, however the Pakistani farm has been placed under quarantine.
In December, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed a case of human infection in Pakistan. The case involved a poultry farm worker in North West Frontier province, who later died. In the neighboring Indian state of West Bengal, 13 of the 19 districts are still battling the virus. So far West Bengal has already culled 2.2 million poultry since the outbreak was confirmed in January.
Meanwhile, a theme park in Hong Kong was ordered to close its aviaries for three weeks after a dead wild heron was discovered in Ocean Park suspected of having been infected.
On January 28, Indonesia reported its human 100th bird flu fatality, a nine-year-old boy. The bird flu virus has become endemic in birds in almost all of the 33 provinces in Indonesia, which according to the WHO, has the highest number of human deaths from the avian influenza worldwide.
