Uganda equipped with bird flu testing machine

In a bid to block the bird flu virus from entering, the Ugandan government equipped its lab with bird flu-testing machine, Ugandan Radio Corporation reported Sunday.

The machine had been installed at the Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, 40 km south of capital city of Kampala, according to Nicholus Kauta, the commissioner of livestock and entomology.

On the installment of the machine, Uganda is able to run the tests within the country.

Uganda was thrown into panic last week when thousands of birds and poultry died in several districts of the country and the deaths were feared to be caused by the avian flu.

Samples of the dead birds sent to Kenya's Medical Research Institute came out negative, which spared the Eastern African country of the deadly virus for now.

Kauta reassured Ugandans that the country is free from the virus, adding that local people should stay on alert since the virus continued to spread in Africa.

Uganda government had imported 1,000 doses of Tummy Flu, the drug that is allegedly effective on human contracted bird flu.

Bird flu is a highly infectious disease in birds which may through constant contact pass onto humans.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus has killed over 100 people in several countries across Asia, Europe and Africa as the wild birds spread the virus along their migration journey.

With the latest conformation of the flu's presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the virus had already hit Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and South Africa.

Source: Xinhua