India - Health Ministry to hold meeting on bird flu

Published: June 17, 2005

Source : The Hindu

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry will shortly convene a high-level meeting to chalk out a strategy for tackling bird flu, in case it hits the country. The meeting is likely to be held in the last week of this month or early July. According to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister A. Ramadoss, the meeting will be attended by the National Security Adviser, health officials from all States and Union Territories, and representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Indian Council for Medical Research and other health-related institutes. Bird flu hit east and south-east Asia in 2003 and has claimed 54 lives in the region until now. Indonesia reported its first case of human bird flu on Thursday, sparking off fears that it could spread through human transmission. The infection had first been detected in poultry, following which millions of chicken either died or were killed to check the infection.

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