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Deadly bird flu outbreak rocks southern Sudan September 13 2006 at 11:19PM Juba - Authorities in autonomous southern Sudan said Wednesday they had confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry, with two other suspected cases of the virus potentially fatal to humans. The outbreak, confirmed by laboratories in the federal capital, Khartoum, and Britain, has not infected any people, they said, but has prompted an alert in neighbouring Uganda amid fears it could spread to humans. The tests confirmed that several chickens from a residential backyard in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba had died from H5N1 on August 3, said Louis Morris Kyanga of south Sudan's Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries. "We received the results of the tests, and unfortunately all the samples have proven to be positive," he told reporters, adding that further tests were being conducted on the carcasses of 18 ducks found in two backyards on September 9 "Samples from those have been sent again to Khartoum and the United Kingdom, as we do not have the laboratory facilities here, but they are suspected to be avian flu just by the signs," Kyanaga said. H5N1, which has killed nearly 140 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, was reported in northern and central Sudan in April but had not spread to the south. Sudan shares a lengthy border with Egypt, which has suffered more from bird flu than any other country outside Asia since the virus began spreading worldwide earlier this year. The only human case thus far reported in sub-Saharan Africa has been in the Red Sea state of Djibouti. While the virus does not spread easily among people, the chance of a mutation that would allow it to do so is heightened as more humans catch it from infected birds. Scientists fear that if this occurs, a global flu pandemic with a massive death toll could result. Africa is considered particularly at risk due to the close proximity between poultry and humans on small family farms such as the affected homesteads in Juba. Kyanga said southern Sudan authorities were taking steps to contain the flu but had not yet resorted to culling. "A surveillance team has been sent to the affected areas and there is a ban on the movement of birds," he said.
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