Chicken seller thinks he has flu, officials differ

Kadarbhai Murghiwala quarantined, samples sent to Bhopal, Delhi

There is another avian influenza scare in Gujarat, this time a suspected human case. The authorities tried their best to keep the matter under wraps, but finally had to accept that 30-year-old Kadarbhai Murghiwala of Jamalpur was suspected to be suffering from the flu. It also agreed that samples have been sent to Animal Disease Laboratory, Bhopal and National Institute of Communicable Disease NICD, Delhi.

Kadarbhai is at present quarantined at the City Civil Hospital as a 8216;precautionary measure8217; and has already undergone a series of blood and urine tests. While the authorities are unsure, the patient himself suspects he might have caught the virus from his chicken, which died in large numbers over the last fortnight.

Kadarbhai sells chicken at Jamalpur and keeps a stock of around 700 chicken at his shop. 8216;8216;More than 300 of my birds have died in the last 15 days. I myself began culling the sick ones,8217;8217; stated Kadarbhai, wearing a mask and sitting on the hospital bed, before he was shifted to an isolated room.

Initially tightlipped, hospital superintendent M M Prabhakar later said they 8216;8216;do not believe he is suffering from bird flu. However, we have taken samples and put him in an isolated room.8217;8217;

Dr Bankim Mankad, who is treating the patient, said the symptoms do not match WHO guidelines. 8216;8216;But, as he is apprehensive about his health, we do not want to overlook the matter.8217;8217;

8216;8216;I have been suffering from breathing problems for some time. This week the problem worsened and I went to hospital on Friday. After primary inspection the doctors asked me to get admitted8217;8217; said Kadarbhai, who brings chicken from Wankaner in Rajkot and Modasa in Sabarkantha district.

While Kadarbhai was shifted to the hospital, the AMC health department officials went ahead and collected samples from chicken in Jamalpur and sent a mobile medical van as precautionary measures.

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Chicken dying in Kadarbhai8217;s shop is not an isolated incident. On Friday night, one Mohammad Hussain Allahrakha Shaikh also found 15 of his 25 chicken dead. 8216;8216;I keep chicken as pets. When I found most had died suddenly, I informed the AMC officials,8217;8217; he said. The samples collected from his house too have been sent to Bhopal.

8212;With Palak Nandi