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.



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