In a stable condition and with a favorable evolution is the 9-year-old girl who is the first person infected with bird flu in Ecuador.
She is a native of the Simiátug parish in the province of Bolívar, whose infection is presumed to have occurred through direct contact with birds that carried the virus.
Francisco Pérez, Undersecretary of Health Surveillance, Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), in a virtual press conference indicated –this Wednesday– that the The infection occurs after having had contact with chickens that had been purchased in the city of Ambato and that died, without apparent cause, around December 20, 2022.
A nine-year-old girl is the first person infected with bird flu in Ecuador
He added that the minor has presented mild respiratory symptoms and that it evolved until it reached the Baca Ortiz hospital in Quito.
“Generally, this infection usually occurs in people who work on poultry farms, however, having contact with these chickens that the parents have bought, this disease has occurred,” he said.
The girl began with symptoms around December 25, she was treated locally, but since she found no improvement, she was transferred to Ambato.
He presented pneumonia that got complicatedso he took her to Quito.
Pérez mentioned that on January 7 the case was confirmed by the National Institute for Public Health Research (Inspi).
Approximately 500,000 new birds had been infected with influenza or avian flu, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG) and the Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control Agency (Agrocalidad) reported last Monday.
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These birds, which are added to the first 350,000 patients – which were detected in the first case at the end of November 2022 – and to 17,000 more – in two subsequent cases – correspond to two new outbreaks in the provinces of Cotopaxi and Bolívar.
On November 27, 2022, the MAG reported the first case of bird flu in the province of Cotopaxi and activated an epidemiological fence.
The official assured that there is no other registered case, and all the people who were in an epidemiological siege, both relatives and neighbors of the girl, have not presented symptoms.
Pérez said that there are teams deployed in Bolívar and monitoring and surveillance teams in Cotopaxi, where the avian outbreak occurred.
In addition to a search is made for cases of death of chickens.
Although there is no specific vaccination, the official added that maintains the influenza vaccination process since it somehow protects against other respiratory diseases.
Inspi has been provided with tests to detect this type of virus, he added. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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