NEW DELHI: Union health ministry on Wednesday, July 22, 2021, announced that an epidemiological investigation has been launched into the death of a 11-year-old boy, the first confirmed fatality due to bird flu in India, and said that his close contacts have been put under surveillance.
The child from Gurugram, Haryana, had been diagnosed with leukaemia in June and had developed symptoms of fever, cough and breathing difficulty, soon after induction therapy for cancer. He was admitted to AIIMS, Delhi on July 2 and passed away ten days later due to multi-organ dysfunction.
Apart from AML, the boy had presented with febrile neutropenia (fever with low neutrophils) with pneumonia and shock, which progressed to acute respiratory distress syndrome. The health ministry, in a statement, said that upon testing it was found that the child had both Influenza A and Influenza B but was negative for SARS CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses.
As the subtyping for Influenza A remained inconclusive with available reagents for H1N1 and H3N2 at AIIMS, the samples collected from the child were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune on July 13. At NIV, both the samples were tested for Influenza A and Influenza B along with Influenza A seasonal (H1N1, H1N1 pdm09 and H3N2), non-seasonal avian subtypes (H5, H7, H9 and H10) by RT-PCR. The result showed that the sample is positive for A/H5- a type of bird flu- and type B Victoria lineage. Whole-genome sequencing and virus isolation are in process.
Following the results, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDS) which runs the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, has activated its Haryana state unit to initiate an epidemiological investigation into the case and the matter was also reported to the animal husbandry department.
The government said that based on the available information, the team of doctors and nurses who have treated the patient are being monitored since July 16 for the development of any influenza-like illness but no one has reported symptoms till date.
“Contact tracing was undertaken and family members, close contacts and health care workers are under close surveillance,” said the ministry adding that none of the close contacts has any symptoms. Contact tracing, an active search for any symptomatic case has been carried out in the hospital and area where the case resided. The Centre also said that there are no symptomatic individuals in the area at present.
The government also said the animal husbandry department has not found any suspected cases of bird flu in the area and has enhanced surveillance in a 10-km zone as a precautionary measure. “Epidemiological investigation by the NCDC, involving animal husbandry department and State surveillance unit, is underway,” said the ministry.