As Spring Thaws the Caucasus, Birds and Fear Are Flying North Through Georgia ( Eastern Europe )
TBILISI, Georgia, March 16 In the early morning hours, the cobblestone alleys that wander this city’s slopes are normally crowded with schoolchildren, walking in groups with their backpacks and books. But such sights have lately become rare.
At School No. 50 on Thursday, the director, Nino Gogsadze, stood in the corridors for the 9 a.m. opening. Only two students were waiting for the day’s lessons. Both were her sons.
The school’s 822 other children were absent.
“The parents do not let their children go to school,” Ms. Gogsadze said. “They are afraid.”
Such is the power that avian influenza can hold over the public imagination as the March thaw advances north across the former Soviet Union.
Two girls from School No. 50 died this month of complications related to a strain of common influenza. The deaths were not caused by avian influenza, according to the Georgian government and the World Health Organization, which has reviewed the laboratory results of biological samples taken from the girls.
But clinical facts have hardly mattered, and Tbilisi has succumbed to an outbreak not of avian influenza, but of fear.
School attendance has dipped to half of normal levels, said Alexander Lomaia, the minister of education. Ambulance calls have soared, reaching 900 a day here, up from slightly more than 600, said Lado Chipashvili, the minister of labor, health and social affairs.
The fear has undermined confidence in the food supply, reducing poultry sales and making it hard to find dishes containing chicken or eggs in restaurants.
Even Mr. Chipashvili has had trouble ordering shkmeruli, the sautéed chicken in garlic-and-cream sauce that is part of Georgia’s national cuisine. “Unfortunately, it is impossible,” he said.
Only one bird has been identified in Georgia with the avian influenza virus a wild swan found dead near the coast of the Black Sea on Feb. 23. Domestic birds within a radius of about two miles of the dead swan were promptly culled, about 1,700 birds in all, according to Levan Ramishvili, the coordinator of avian influenza programs at the Ministry of Agriculture.
Georgia has had no human cases of avian influenza, and the World Health Organization said Georgia had monitored bird populations, improved its health system’s ability to treat human cases, and educated its public about the virus and how it its transmitted.
[Read more about this bird flu story here]