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Bird Flu Death Suspected in Thailand (ALISA TANG, Associated Press)
Bird Flu Death Suspected in Thailand
2 hours, 55 minutes ago By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand and Cambodia confirmed bird flu outbreaks Friday, bringing the number of Asian nations hit by the virus to six. World health officials recommended quarantining people as an ailing Thai man died — the country's first suspected bird flu death. Fri Jan 23, 9:24 AM ET Thai workers collect chickens at a farm in Song Peenong district, Supanburi province, Thailand, Friday, Jan. 23, 2004. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Friday that lab test results expected later in the day would 'most likely' show that the country is facing an outbreak of bird flu, after days of official denials that the disease had devastated local poultry farms. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong) AP Photo Thai workers collect chickens at a poultry farm in Suphan Buri province. The bird flu epidemic which has killed five people in Vietnam had infected humans and chickens in Thailand, triggering import bans on its billion-dollar chicken industry.(AFP/Pornchai Thailand is now the second country where people, not just chickens, have come down with the illness recently. The other is Vietnam, where the virus has claimed five lives. Together with the re-emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome, also a flu-like illness, Asia is on a region-wide health alert. Governments have started slaughtering chickens as they scramble to contain the outbreak. Millions of chickens have died or been killed in the six countries, which also include South Korea (news - web sites), Japan and Taiwan. Scientists have reached no firm conclusions on why the flu is so contagious, but a leading theory is its adaptability. The World Health Organization (news - web sites) fears bird flu could combine with a human flu to create a dangerous mutant form. Dr. Klaus Stohr, head of the U.N. agency's influenza program, recommended Friday that people with bird flu be quarantined to avoid contact with sufferers of regular influenza. However, he said he saw no need for the kind of travel warnings WHO issued during last year's outbreak of SARS (news - web sites), which killed nearly 800 people worldwide. "We have to put things into perspective. There is a chance that something can go wrong but it looks if we act decisively now then there still is a window of opportunity here to control the disease before it takes on global proportions." Killing chickens in affected countries is "the key to the solution of the whole problem," Stohr added. "We do not have a problem of international spread by infected humans. We may have a problem of international spread by birds." Thailand's government confirmed the disease was present in its poultry population. It also said tests showed two boys, one 6 and the other 7, have the virus and two other people are suspected of having it. One, reportedly a 56-year-old man who raised fighting cocks, died Friday, the government said. Cambodia also confirmed its outbreak while Laos held an emergency meeting Friday to evaluate cases of dead poultry there. Farmers in Thailand have been saying for more than a week that their chickens, like those in neighboring countries, were dying of bird flu. But until Friday, officials had maintained the chickens were suffering from fowl cholera — which they said posed no danger to people. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra denied his government tried to cover up the situation. "We were waiting for the tests," he told reporters. "I know what I'm doing." Thailand is among the world's top five poultry exporters. Stocks in chicken producers plunged and the European Union (news - web sites) joined Japan, together Thailand's largest chicken markets, in slapping import bans. Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines have done likewise. Thailand will host a meeting Jan. 28 of agriculture and health ministers from bird flu-affected countries. The WHO will send two influenza experts to Thailand this weekend to help cope with the outbreak. Scientists believe people get the disease through contact with sick birds. So far, there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission. But health officials worry the avian virus could mutate by combining with an influenza virus to allow human transmission. Thailand said it tested samples from more than 100,000 chickens nationwide and found bird flu to be present in Suphanburi province. The Agriculture Ministry ordered the slaughter of all chickens in Suphanburi. Opposition politicians urged Thailand to be forthcoming about bird flu, saying it should not follow the example of China, which disastrously tried to hide details about SARS, leading to a global health crisis last year. "What the government has done cannot make the people feel sure about their lives and the safety of the community," said Ong-art Klampaiboon, spokesman for the Democrat Party. The Health Ministry said the man who died Friday was admitted to a hospital in Chachoengsao province on Jan. 20 with diarrhea and severe pneumonia. At the time he was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. Doctors now suspect he may have had bird flu and were conducting further tests. The deadly bird flu virus crossed over from chickens to humans in Hong Kong in 1997 and killed six people. International health experts have started work on a human vaccine but expect it will be months before one is ready. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! -- Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG |
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