PESHAWAR, March 7: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that bird flu was still a potential threat to infect humans in the region and stressed on preventive measures in this regard.

“The people must report to health authorities about sick birds and personal illness immediately. Separate wild from tame birds, raw from cooked and sick from healthy birds. Washing hands are better way to keep the avian influenza at bay,” said Dr Fawad Khan, Human Avian Influenza Coordinator of the global organisation in Pakistan.

Speaking at a one-day media workshop here on Friday, he said the avian influenza had entered third phase and there was more likelihood that it could infect the human. In such scenario, the only option is to adopt preventive measures, saying that that mortality rate was 62 per cent, three times higher than SARS.

The government, he said, was taking steps by imparting to the poultry workers to avoid the H5N1 transmission from birds to human and from human to human.

Senior Scientific Officer National Reference Laboratory for Poultry Dr Zaheer Ahmed said that Pakistan recorded first epidemic of bird flu in 1994 and second in 2003. The country experienced 48 outbreaks in 2006, 59 in 2007 and eight this year so far. He said 128 suspected people were tested for the H5N1 in 2006 and 146 in 2007 and 11 this year, of which only one patient was tested positive.

He said that the government had established a reference laboratory and services of three private sector diagnostic outlets had been obtained that would ensure the results of samples of suspected patients within 48 to 72 hours. The results given by these laboratories won’t need verification by international labs, he added.

Besides, he said, the government was in the process of registering all poultry farms and outlets, and was introducing a law to put in place maximum bio-safety measures. Forty new labs are being set up in the cities to promptly diagnose and treat suspected patients. He said that 19 persons, including 10 from government and nine from private sector, had been trained at the National Reference Laboratory for Poultry who would now be imparting training to others at provincial and district level.

WHO Operations Officer for NWFP and Fata Dr Saeed Akbar Khan said that it was a misconception that bird flu spread through eating cooked chickens, eggs and other poultry products. “Canned poultry products, frozen poultry meat, liquid and powdered eggs are safe for human consumption,” he added.

Dr Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi, a local pulmonologist, said that the government in collaboration with the WHO was establishing respiratory isolation units in Peshawar and Abbottabad to provide treatment facilities to suspected patients of bird flu.