Cullers: Safety Norms Ignored

 

# 1583

 

 

The newspaper is calling it a `major safety lapse', and a `potentially deadly blunder'.  

 

Thousands of cullers have apparently gone home without quarantine, and  in some cases, some may not have been given Tamiflu.   Even in the quarantine camps, workers come and go during the day, and supposedly just show up for morning and evening roll call.

 

This from The Times of India.

 

 

 

 

 

Safety norms ignored for culling teams

1 Feb 2008, 0228 hrs IST,TNN

 

KOLKATA: In a major safety lapse, the state government allowed thousands of culling team members to go home and mingle with their families and friends without putting them in quarantine — a mandatory step to ensure none of them has contracted the deadly bird flu virus.

 

The state has only now realized this potentially deadly blunder and is summoning the cullers back to base camps where they will be isolated and put through tests for 10 days. The chief minister personally got into the act and held video conferences with district magistrates and sabhadhipatis to ensure that culling teams are quarantined after finishing operations. Armed policemen could be deployed to watch these camps.

 

"We have instructed DMs not to allow any culling team member to go home without being quarantined. They should also be administered Tamiflu tablets during culling and the quarantine period," said health minister Surjya Kanta Misra, who was present at the CM’s video conference along with animal resources development minister Anisur Rahman.

 

But by now, these culling team members - from Nadia, Hooghly, Birbhum and Murshidabad - have put at risk their families, neighbours and whoever they came in contact with. Officials who went to Malda and West Midnapore were the only ones to be quarantined.

 

"Even during quarantine, it has been noticed that many cullers leave the camps for most of the day to meet friends or relatives and only come back for the morning and evening roll call," said D P Chatterjee, the Haringhata BDO. If even one of them has contracted the H5N1 virus, there is a great risk of the deadly flu spreading, say health officials in Nadia. Many of those quarantined reportedly went out to have food because they did not like the meals served at base camps.

 

In Birbhum, leaders of some teams complained that about 700 cullers were released after merely being administered Tamiflu. They were not even asked to observe any extra precautions. "We were only advised to go to a doctor in case of high fever," said a culling team leader. However, district ARD official Sankar Das Bhowmik insists it is unlikely that any infection spread as a result of these team members going home after culling. Some cullers even complained that they were not being provided protective aprons.

 

In Hooghly, there is fear among culling team members, many of whom are refusing to take Tamiflu, a mandatory precaution. CMOH Bhusan Chakraborty admitted that the administration had failed to create awareness among the cullers. This is hindering operations in the district.