India: A Subtle Change In The Message?

 

#1606

 

 

It's still O-Dark-Thirty here on the East coast of the United States, but it is already 3pm in the Afternoon in India and Bangladesh.   The newswires are now carrying the following story, which describes two cullers hospitalized for `influenza', but also contains a curious statement towards the end.

 

First the story, from The Times of India, then a short discussion.

 

 

2 culling men down with influenza in WB

4 Feb 2008, 1417 hrs IST,PTI

KOLKATA: Two members of a culling team in bird flu-hit South 24-Parganas district have been admitted to a hospital with symptoms of influenza even as killing of diseased poultry continued in the affected districts of the state on Monday.

 

Both the patients were members of a team engaged in culling at Budge Budge in the district.

Tarak Nath Haldar was admitted to M S Bangur hospital while Mohd Azizul Rahman was admitted to Budge Budge Rural Hospital yesterday, Chief Medical Officer Health, Sachidananda Sarkar said.

 

While blood samples of Haldar had been given for testing, a team from Bangur hospital would go to Budge Budge for taking blood samples of Rahman, he said.

 

He said Haldar was suffering from fever, headache and body ache. Doctors were monitoring his condition to ascertain whether he had developed any respiratory problem as the fever could take a turn towards pneumonia, Sarkar said.

He said as of now there were no reports of human deaths from bird flu in the country.

 

Meanwhile, 12 more culling teams were sent to Canning II block where fresh culling had been taken up yesterday with ten teams already operating in the area, official sources said.

 

Culling is being done in a 5 km radius from Sarengabad gram panchayat, including five in Canning II block and two In Bhangar block, sources said.

 

Culling is also being taken up in Minakha block in North 24-Parganas adjoining Sarengabad in Debital and Malia mouzas, the sources said,

 

Police are accompanying the culling teams in the door-to-door culling operations.

 

 

We will have to await blood tests to know if these cullers are suffering from anything other than seasonal influenza.  Reportedly, there are others in hospitals with similar symptoms, and tests are awaited on them as well.

 

The curious thing about this story is the change in the mantra, expressed by nearly every government official in India since this crisis began.  You know, the one that goes:

 

"There have been no reported cases of human infection of bird flu in the country."

 

Today we get:

 

He said as of now there were no reports of human deaths from bird flu in the country.

 

An interesting choice of words. Of course that assumes he was not misquoted or simply misspoke.

 

While no Indian official has confirmed that any humans have tested positive for the virus, this statement - if accurate- certainly raises some questions.