Updated on Thursday, December 11, 2008, 00:00 IST

Guwahati, Dec 11: With the avian flu spreading to nine districts in Assam, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Thursday warned that the disease could become a major disaster for human beings if poultry are not allowed to be culled.

The Minister said, "Active surveillance of the population was on in the nine affected districts."

As many as 82 cases with people having upper respiratory infection (URI) were reported since the outbreak of the disease early this month, but were not stated be be bird flu cases. URI is one of the symptoms of the disease," the Minister said.

"Though they were ruled out to be suffering from the disease, the symptoms are alarming and all the people with URI were being scrutinised," he added.

"People are taking the disease very casually. Chicken and ducks are kept away from culling without realising the implications of the seriousness of the disease," Sarma told reporters here today.

"We will not be able to handle if the disease spreads to humans from the birds on a full-fledged level. The way the disease is spreading, it will be a major disaster than bomb blasts or floods," Sarma asserted.

"The human disaster will be immense. The health department is ready to handle 100 to 200 cases. The department is very worried about human transmission of the disease as it is not 100 per cent equipped to handle a largescale outbreak as there are no isolation facilities here," he said.

Bureau Report