Bird flu outbreak has Thailand on high alert

BANGKOK: -- Thailand confirmed yesterday its first outbreaks this year of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that can be deadly to humans, prompting authorities to declare a high alert throughout the country.

The announcement that bird flu had been found in two Thai provinces came on the heels of Vietnam's sixth human death in the past three weeks from the H5N1 virus.

Thai scientists found the virus in 20 fighting cocks in the eastern province of Rayong, said Yukol Limlamthong, director general of the Livestock Development Department.

"Tests confirmed on January 10 that some 20 fighting cocks in two houses were infected," he told AFP.

The 20 infected birds were all found in Klang district and had already been killed, he told AFP.

A second outbreak was confirmed in the central province of Phitsanulok, where 50 locally bred chickens were confirmed to have the disease on January 17, he said.

Both districts where bird flu was found are under a 21 day surveillance period, and no chickens can be taken in or out of the area, Yukol said.

-- AFP 2005-01-20

Thai scientists found the virus in 20 fighting cocks

oh , suprise suprise

this seems to be the major way of transfer , some cockhead pooyai's avain penis enhancement

run him off

This will also do nothing in attracting tourists. 

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And the WHO has issued a serious warning. See this link from the Financial Times...

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ad5b0948-6b50-11d...000e2511c8.html

WHO's best-case scenario: 7 million deaths worldwide. Worst case: 100 million deaths, three BILLION people get the disease.

Not small numbers.

Exactly what are the rules now as far as poultry running free within a village in Thailand? Must they be penned up in a coop or not?

I fear for my children and have taken to shooting adjacent to the chickens that enter my property. I also strictly enforce all members of my household to wear shoes or at least sandals when outside of the house. I am trying to stop the tranmission on my property through bird feces.

If the problem gets worse I will post a notice and kill all chickens entering my property. The owner can always make claims against me, I do not care but, feel the welfare of my children is paramount.

Just do not know what to do about human transmission potential. After all, I cannot shoot them.

Even though millions of chickens were exterminated, this problem has not been dealt with seriously enough. What a joke. Thaksin himself one day said the problem had been eradicated and the very next day some tigers died at the Si Racha zoo and another bunch had to be killed.

this is the problem , every village has its fighting cocks ,and hens running around in domestic areas . try telling the locals that this is a threat and they laugh it off , wont hapen here bla bla bla ....

complacency rules all over the country ,thats the threat .

this is why i suspect that things can only get worse ...much worse

The WHO would not report such drastic numbers if it was not aware of the potential disaster that could happen. The problem is complacency as someone mentioned, but it is also that it could be out of human hands if this things starts to jump from human to human.......no-one.......will be able to stop it and it will not discriminate in who it gets !

From what I am hearing the real concern is the lethality of this virus. I think the death rate is running around 90%, recovery is not an option. It has some people in the scientific community scared and scared badly. We really need one of our resident physicians to give us a best guess if this things gets out of the box. I think Tamiflu might be of some help but quarantine might be the best chance of survival. Would like to hear how to increase our chances for when it does explode and the WHO is about positive it is going to.

Is Bangkok affected?