Nepal has used all alertness to prevent the possibility of bird flu disease. Talking to Nepalnews, the program director of Animal Health Directorate Dr Dhan Raj Ratala said the government has several programs to prevent this disease.

The government has established the central laboratory which is on red alert 24 hours. Veterinary stations in sixteen districts of northern belt of the country and 24 districts of the Terai are on red alert, Dr Ratala said. The imported birds and animals are checked there.

Dr Ratala added there is very less possibility of the bird flu in Nepal, carried by migratory birds. The Nepali cooking method of meat makes the possibility of the infection next to nil, he further said.

The H5N1 bird flu is one of the highly spreading diseases in Europe and Asia. It has become a deadly worldwide pandemic. The UN has warned that the latest reported cases increase the probability of the fatal bird flu strain spreading to Africa and the Middle East, along the flight path of migrating birds.

The H5N1 virus causes the bird flu. It is transmitted from animals like ducks, hens to human beings if a person comes in close contact with the infected animals, or with the feces of infected birds. There has been no indication that humans would get the disease through eating eggs or meat of sick birds.

At first, the bird flu showed up in 1918 and 1919 in the United States in pigs and infected humans. Then in 1930, it was found in Hong Kong and China. It also showed up in Taiwan in 1970, the US in 1971 and China in 1977. It has now spread to various parts of the world.

According to Word Health Organization (WHO), 68 people lost their lives up to 2005 by the disease and that 72% of total infected by the deadly disease have lost their lives. Among them, 6 died in Indonesia, 43 in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and 4 in Cambodia.

The main symptoms seen in the infected person are high fever, cough and dizziness.