India reported its first suspected human death from bird flu on Sunday, a day after announcing its first infections of the H5N1 flu virus in poultry. The outbreak and suspected case, plus the testing of other people with flu-like symptoms, has sparked an emergency campaign to try to control the virus before it spreads further in the world's second most populous nation. "A poultry farm owner died on Friday in Surat district. Local tests have confirmed bird flu but we have sent samples to the national laboratory. A final report is awaited," Vatsala Vasudev, the top district administrator of Surat in western Gujarat state, told Reuters. Gujarat is adjacent to Maharashtra state, where 50,000 birds died in recent days and tests on some of the dead fowl proved positive for the H5N1 virus. Reuters quoted an official as saying that the state's borders had been sealed to all poultry trade after the reported death.
