BBC Bird flu kills child in Thailand

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>BBC DAILY E-MAIL: UK EDITION

>Monday, 26 January, 2004, 09:00 GMT 01:00 US/Pacific

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> * Bird flu kills child in Thailand *

>Thailand confirms its first avian flu fatality

>as the virus continues to spread across Asia.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3428843.stm

>

Thailand warns on bird flu deaths

Thailand has warned that the death toll from an

outbreak of bird flu could be as high as six,

amid fears about the virus' spread across Asia.

 

Officials said five people suspected of having

the virus had died, in addition to a six-year old

boy who became the first confirmed fatality on

Sunday.

 

The World Health Organization said the flu's

rapid spread posed a potential threat for a

serious human outbreak.

 

However, there has been still been no sign of it jumping from human to human.

 

A WHO spokesman told the BBC that it was becoming

clear that the strain had been around in the

region much longer than first thought.

 

That multiplied the risk of human infections, he

added, and of the virus mutating, perhaps by

attaching itself to human flu and becoming far

more deadly.

 

The WHO believes the disease is now too serious

for individual countries to deal with alone.

Among the Thai dead were two women and three men,

according to a statement issued by Thailand's

disease control director Charal Trinvuthipong.

 

Earlier on Monday, the Thai Agriculture Ministry

said the virus had been detected in eight more

provinces, in addition to two provinces already

confirmed.

 

 

AVIAN FLU ALERT

First jumped " species barrier " from bird to human in 1997

In humans, similar symptoms include fever, sore throat, and cough

Types known to infect humans are influenza A subtypes H5N1 and H9N2

 

 

It said all the fatalities were from two

provinces - central Sukhothai and Chachanoengsao,

east of the capital Bangkok.

 

The Thai outbreak has triggered alarm across the region.

 

In Laos, where thousands of chickens have died,

carcasses of dead birds have been sent to Vietnam

for tests.

 

There are also reports of a boy dying of bird flu

in neighbouring Cambodia, the BBC's Rachel Harvey

reports.

 

Pakistani officials said a different, and less

threatening, strain of bird flu had been found in

chickens in the southern port of Karachi.

 

The strain was identified as H-7 and H-9, less

dangerous than the H5N1 afflicting South East

Asia.

 

Rapid deterioration

 

The six-year-old Thai boy who died is believed to

have picked up the virus after touching the

carcasses of infected poultry in his village in

western Kanchanaburi province.

 

Thailand's Public Health Minister, Sudarat

Keyuraphan, announcing the boy's death, said the

boy's health " deteriorated very rapidly " .

 

" This is typical of bird flu. It is very hard to

get infected by this disease, but once you have

it you tend to go down very fast, " she said.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, faced with

accusations of a cover-up, has admitted that his

government initially kept quiet about its

suspicions that avian flu had broken out, to

avoid causing public panic.

 

" We have suspected this for about a couple of weeks, " he said on Sunday.

 

" The government knew, so why didn't they tell the

public so that we could protect ourselves? " the

boy's father, Chamnan Boonmanut, told the

Associated Press news agency on Monday.

 

" Nobody wants to get sick and die, " Mr Chamnan said.

 

As well as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, avian

flu has also affected chickens in Cambodia,

Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.

 

Several countries have banned imports of poultry

from Thailand - Asia's largest poultry exporter -

including its main customers, Japan and the

European Union.

 

Thailand plans to hold an emergency summit in

Bangkok on Wednesday to discuss the crisis with

its Asian neighbours. Officials from the EU, the

WHO and the UN food agency are also invited.

 

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3428843.stm

 

Published: 2004/01/26 14:44:22 GMT

 

© BBC MMIV

 

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