The civil surgeon’s office has issued an alert to the medical officers in primary health centres for keeping tabs on the likely outbreak of avian flu in Patna district.

The alert comes after the flu outbreak in Purnea district last week, where more than 5,000 birds have been culled.

Patna civil surgeon Lakhendra Prasad told The Telegraph: “We have asked medical officers of all the primary health centres to keep a tab if any bird is dying or falling sick in their areas. They have to inform us immediately in such cases so that immediate action can be taken. We have also written letters to veterinarians requesting them to keep tabs on poultry farms in their areas. They have been asked to inform the civil surgeon’s office in case they find any case of bird flu also.”

There are 23 primary health centres in the district.

Experts said although incidents of the H5N1 virus strain spreading from one bird to another bird are common, the infection can rarely spread to human beings.

However, they did not rule out the possibility.

“The transition of H5N1 virus strain from bird to human body can be very dangerous. The human body develops antigens at the time of normal influenza. But as avian flu is new to their body, a person can succumb to it,” said city-based physician Diwakar Tejaswi.

The civil surgeon said: “A special vaccine to save people from being affected by the virus strain is provided by the Union government. But it is not yet available in Patna’s primary health centres. Only when some cases of avian flu infection among people are reported, the vaccine will be made available to us.”