India isolates 26 as Bird Flu spreads

KOLKATA—India has put 26 people in isolation with bird flu symptoms and hundreds more people are being monitored, officials said on Friday as Pakistan and Thailand reported outbreaks of bird flu in poultry. India is battling its worst outbreak of avian influenza, which has spread to 13 of West Bengal’s 19 districts. The densely populated state is adjacent to Bangladesh, itself trying to control a major outbreak of bird flu, and has millions of backyard fowl. India has not reported any human infection of the H5N1 bird flu virus in its four outbreaks of avian influenza since 2006. “The preliminary tests for bird flu are negative, but more tests are being conducted and the list of sick people reviewed every day.—Online