Imphal, January 07 2009: MORE THAN 22 people from Misao Lhavom village under Churachandpur district have been hospitalized with unknown disease but with similar symptoms to that of avian influenza during the last 24-hours on Monday causing fear to the villagers who also complaint of dead of domestic fowls at the same period of time.

Laboratory test to the blood sample Wednesday confirmed the cause of dead of chickens at Misao Lhavom village of Churachandpur as comibacillosis, an common disease of chicken which relief the villagers and the result has relief villagers as well as officials of the state veterinary department outbreak of bird flu and fear of infection to human.

Mention may be made that following the evacuation of 22 villagers to the hospital with coughing with complaints of headache and vomiting, a medical team led by district medical officer, CMO, Churachandpur, Dr Thang Khan Piang rushed to the village and examine the villagers by taking blood sample.

The team rushed to the spot after the blood test for malaria to the hospitalized patients conducted at the Churachandpur district hospital found negative results.

Another team of officials of the veterinary department also rushed to the spot with the reported dead of chickens in the same village.

"We have tested the blood sample collected from the dead and alive chickens of the village Misao Lhavom where many people reported hospitalized Tuesday and found the disease that killed the chicken as Comibacillosis, an ordinary disease of the domestic fowls," Dr P Rajen, the head of Animal Disease Investigation Unit of the state veterinary hospital, Sanjenthong, Imphal said.

Dr Rajen further said that chicken in the village did not died in mass scale by the disease which the villagers earlier ignorance and there is no reason to fear by the villagers as the kind of disease is a common water and food born disease which can control.

He also revealed that the cause of suffering people by an unknown disease in the same village might not be spread out from the chicken but from the water as the origin of the water which people fetch for their use and for feeding chicken are the same.

Rajen went on to say that even though the outbreak of bird flu in 2007 successfully curtailed in the state, still the surveillance of the same by sending out teams across the state are on.

"We have been on the look and recently intensifying it" following the outbreak of the disease in the neigbhouring Assam state, he added.

Mention may be made that at least 16 villagers hailing from Misao Lhavom hospitalized Monday to the district hospital with complaint of severe coughing with headache, vomiting and felt unconscious with complaint of respiratory problem.

Six more villagers hospitalized on the next day raising the villager admitted to the district hospital.

Further admission of villagers reported today.

Colluding with the villager complaints of dying chickens at the same timing, a veterinary team of district rushed to the spot and collected blood samples of the chickens and conducted test at the blood testing laboratory, Imphal today which confirmed the chickens infected by comibacillosis.

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