The Ministry of Health (Minsal) addressed this Friday the health dimension of the arrival of bird flu in the country. This, after the discovery of three wild birds with the H5N1 virus was reported in recent days.
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The first case reported by the Ministry of Agriculture was in a wild bird in the Arica and Parinacota region, while yesterday the presence of the virus was reported in two other birds in the Tarapacá and Antofagasta regions.
“Faced with the detection of cases of avian influenza in wild birds, the Ministry of Health is adopting all the corresponding sanitary measures and keeps its surveillance system active,” said Iván Ríos, head of the Office of Epidemiological Surveillance of Communicable Diseases this afternoon. of the Department of Epidemiology of the Minsal.
He added that “although the H5N1 influenza virus can affect people, the risk of transmission is only for those who are exposed to handling dead birds. Currently, there is no evidence of transmission between people.”
For this reason, the call from the health authority is “not to be alarmed, but to be alert”, and especially to avoid handling dead birds, “since the virus can spread through them”.
Faced with this situation, he asked the population to contact the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) or the respective Health Seremi. Meanwhile, for people who work with birds, the instruction is “to use your personal protective equipment, consisting of a mask, gloves, protective glasses and boots. In this way, they will take care of their health and also that of their birds”, he settled.
THE MERCURY (GDA)
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