MANILA (Bloomberg/AFP): The Philippines has banned imports of birds and poultry products from Australia following recent cases of H1N1 bird flu in the country.
There were reported outbreaks of H7N3 and H7N9 - subtypes of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus - on May 23 and May 25 in the state of Victoria, as confirmed by the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, Manila’s Department of Agriculture said in a statement on Saturday.
In a memorandum signed by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel on June 6, all shipments of domestic and wild birds from Australia would be allowed provided that they were slaughtered or produced on or before May 9, according to the statement.
Australia is the South-East Asian nation’s fourth-largest source of imported chicken meat, totaling 5,365 metric tons as of April. During the same period, the Philippines imported 46,987 heads of day-old chicks and 30,780 pieces of hatching eggs, the agriculture department said.
Meanwhile, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl tested positive for H5N1 bird flu and needed hospital intensive care treatment in Australia after travelling to India, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.
"This is the first confirmed human infection caused by avian influenza A(H5N1) virus detected and reported by Australia," the WHO said in a statement as reported by AFP.
"Although the source of exposure to the virus in this case is currently unknown, the exposure likely occurred in India" where the girl had travelled, and where this group of "viruses has been detected in birds in the past", the UN health agency added.
The WHO assesses the current risk to the general population posed by the virus as low.
The girl had travelled to Kolkata from February 12 to 29. She did not have any known exposure to sick people or animals while in the city.
The girl returned to Australia on March 1 and was admitted to a hospital in the southeastern Victoria state the following day.
On March 4 she was transferred to an intensive care unit in the state capital Melbourne for one week, due to worsening symptoms. She left hospital after two and a half weeks.
The girl tested positive for influenza A while in hospital, and the samples were sent on in April for deeper characterisation.
"Virus genetic sequence obtained from the samples confirmed the subtype A(H5N1)... which circulates in southeast Asia and has been detected in previous human infections and in poultry," the WHO said.
The girl is reported to be well while no relatives in either Australia or India have developed symptoms.
The Indian authorities have been notified and have started an epidemiological investigation, the agency said. - AFP
