Who Echoes Thai Fears Of Virus Mutation

[mouse]

Since this is in my neck of the woods, I feel that I must keep everyone abreast of the story from here................. The article below was in the online version of Sundays (26 Sep 2004) Bangkok Post

A new suspected bird flu case was admitted to Kamphaeng Phet Hospital yesterday as the World Health Organisation echoed concerns of Thai health authorities that the disease may be spreading from human to human.

Charal Trinvudhipong, the acting public health permanent secretary, said a six-year-old boy whose mother was being treated at the same hospital as a suspected case, fell ill on Sept 22 with bird flu-like symptoms _ high fever with inflamed lungs. He was sent to the hospital on Friday.

Dr Charal said the boy's condition improved after taking Tamiflu, a drug used to treat influenza.

He said a lab test of another flu suspect, a 32-year-old woman who was being treated at the hospital, showed she did not have the H5N1 virus. However, he said the Public Health Ministry decided to repeat the test at Siriraj Hosptal and the Medical Sciences Department to counter-check the results which were expected to come out tonight.

Meanwhile, Kumara Rai, WHO acting Thailand representative, told AFP he suspected human transmission had occurred in a case in Kamphaeng Phet province, of a girl and boy thought to have died from the virus.

The 11-year-old girl's mother, who lived near Bangkok but travelled north to visit her daughter in hospital and then attended her funeral, returned to the capital where she too fell ill and died. Her death is also on the suspect list.

Laboratory tests on the three people, as well on the girl's aunt who is hospitalised with severe pneumonia, were being conducted to see if the virus was present.

Sudarat Keyuraphan, the public health minister, yesterday sought to downplay fears of human transmission, stressing preliminary test results from the aunt showed no bird flu.

``Initial test results [from the aunt] were negative, so at the moment we feel relieved about whether this was a case where the virus had jumped from human to human. But we still need to double check a final test.'' The results are expected tomorrow.

Health ministry officials have confirmed the girl and the 13-year-old boy in Kamphaeng Phet came into contact with sick household chickens, but Mr Rai and others have said it was not clear whether the mother and the aunt had contact with the birds.

On Friday Mr Rai met field epidemiologists, Thai-based officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and senior health ministry officials to find out whether the women had come into contact with the fowl. ``We are still almost firm that there was no contact with sick birds,'' Mr Rai said. Avian influenza's lethal H5N1 strain has killed 28 people in Vietnam and Thailand this year in two waves of Asian outbreaks which also caused the deaths or culling of more than 100 million chickens.

The WHO fears H5N1 could mutate into a highly contagious form and trigger a global human flu pandemic.

[bartender100]

RamTodatry

You don't happen to work for the company do you?

[mouse]

RamTodatry

  You don't happen to work for the company do you?

No becuase if that was the case, I would be rich or a lot smarter