Need to be vigilant on Avian Influenza virus' new strain: Organised Medicine Academic Guild

OMAG, an umbrella organisation of professional medical associations of post-graduate doctors, has asked the government and people to be vigilant amid the new strain of Avian Influenza virus - H9N2 which has hit China.

Mumbai: Amid the new strain of Avian Influenza virus - H9N2 which has hit China, the Organised Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG), an umbrella organisation of professional medical associations of post-graduate doctors, has asked the government and people to be vigilant.

“H9N2 is one of the variants of Avian Influenza virus - the bird flu virus. Hence ultimately it boils down to two things: most new infectious agents are viruses, not bacteria or fungus or parasites, most of the new viral infections are zoonotic infections that means infections arising out of animals / birds, spreading to human beings and then from human to human transmission,” OMAG Secretary General Dr Ishwar Gilada said on Saturday.

“This is mainly because human beings for their own survival and selfish mottos intrude the environments or habitats of animals including wild animals, birds, forests and anything and everything. We have to therefore pay a heavy price for that. Same thing is with ecology, which is resulting in global warming. What happens in one part of the world has a cascading effect on other parts as we are a global village and connected with each other,” he said.

According to him, India is relatively better prepared than in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit us. "But we can not remain complacent and need to keep a close watch on any such development as seen in China in the last couple of weeks. WHO needs to come out with its final declaration on how did Covid-19 came? Was it man-made or an accidental leak? WHO appointmented committees after committees, four of them till date but still shying away from bringing out the truth. That is not acceptable !,” he asked.