Thailand Discovers Bird Flu In Other Provinces

[george]

Thailand discovers bird flu in other provinces

BANGKOK: -- Bird flu has hit two more provinces in northern Thailand, bringing the total number of provinces affected by the deadly disease to eight, officials from the national centre for bird flu control said on Thursday.

These provinces are Nong Khai and Pichit in northern Thailand, the officials said, adding that 208 chickens had died of the H5N1 virus in Thabor and Sri Chiang Mai districts of Nong Khai, and 20 chickens were also reported dead of the virus in Pichit.

On Wednesday, Thabor district culled more than 10,000 chickens and birds in an effort to prevent the epidemic from spreading. Meanwhile, the country is sending groups of experts to high-risk provinces, mostly in northern and central regions, to join hands with local medical workers in the fight against the deadly disease.

Twelve people died from the avian virus that broke out in Thailand in December 2003. The Thai government has approved a budget of 4.8 billion baht for the country's plan to combat bird flu.

--Agencies 2005-02-03

[guran]

Thailand discovers bird flu in other provinces

BANGKOK: -- Bird flu has hit two more provinces in northern Thailand, bringing the total number of provinces affected by the deadly disease to eight, officials from the national centre for bird flu control said on Thursday.

These provinces are Nong Khai and Pichit in northern Thailand, the officials said, adding that 208 chickens had died of the H5N1 virus in Thabor and Sri Chiang Mai districts of Nong Khai, and 20 chickens were also reported dead of the virus in Pichit.

On Wednesday, Thabor district culled more than 10,000 chickens and birds in an effort to prevent the epidemic from spreading. Meanwhile, the country is sending groups of experts to high-risk provinces, mostly in northern and central regions, to join hands with local medical workers in the fight against the deadly disease.

Twelve people died from the avian virus that broke out in Thailand in December 2003. The Thai government has approved a budget of 4.8 billion baht for the country's plan to combat bird flu.

--Agencies 2005-02-03

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was not many months ago that Thaksin proposed buying jet fighters and paying with chickens. Glad he did not succeed !

[sriracha john]

Two points worth considering:

From the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine:

Probable Person-to-Person Transmission of Avian Influenza A (H5N1)

Kumnuan Ungchusak, M.D., M.P.H., Prasert Auewarakul, M.D., Scott F. Dowell, M.D., M.P.H., Rungrueng Kitphati, M.D., Wattana Auwanit, Ph.D., Pilaipan Puthavathana, Ph.D., Mongkol Uiprasertkul, M.D., Kobporn Boonnak, M.Sc., Chakrarat Pittayawonganon, M.D., Nancy J. Cox, Ph.D., Sherif R. Zaki, M.D., Ph.D., Pranee Thawatsupha, M.S., Malinee Chittaganpitch, B.Sc., Rotjana Khontong, M.D., James M. Simmerman, R.N., M.S., and Supamit Chunsutthiwat, M.D., M.P.H.

Background. During 2004, a highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) virus caused poultry disease in eight Asian countries and infected at least 44 persons, killing 32; most of these persons had had close contact with poultry. No evidence of efficient person-to-person transmission has yet been reported. We investigated possible person-to-person transmission in a family cluster of the disease in Thailand.

Methods. For each of the three involved patients, we reviewed the circumstances and timing of exposures to poultry and to other ill persons. Field teams isolated and treated the surviving patient, instituted active surveillance for disease and prophylaxis among exposed contacts, and culled the remaining poultry surrounding the affected village. Specimens from family members were tested by viral culture, microneutralization serologic analysis, immunohistochemical assay, reverse-transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, and genetic sequencing.

Results. The index patient became ill three to four days after her last exposure to dying household chickens. Her mother came from a distant city to care for her in the hospital, had no recognized exposure to poultry, and died from pneumonia after providing 16 to 18 hours of unprotected nursing care. The aunt also provided unprotected nursing care; she had fever five days after the mother first had fever, followed by pneumonia seven days later. Autopsy tissue from the mother and nasopharyngeal and throat swabs from the aunt were positive for influenza A (H5N1) by RT-PCR. No additional chains of transmission were identified, and sequencing of the viral genes identified no change in the receptor-binding site of hemagglutinin or other key features of the virus. The sequences of all eight viral gene segments clustered closely with other H5N1 sequences from recent avian isolates in Thailand.

Conclusions. Disease in the mother and aunt probably resulted from person-to-person transmission of this lethal avian influenzavirus during unprotected exposure to the critically ill index patient.

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2. From the World Health Organization:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the bird flu virus could mutate into a highly contagious human-to-human form that could trigger the next global human flu pandemic, killing up to 50 million people worldwide.

Death toll estimates from the last major flu pandemic in 1968 vary from one million to four million people killed, while estimates of the toll from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 range to well over 50 million lives lost.

[mouse]

It was not many months ago that Thaksin proposed buying jet fighters and paying with chickens. Glad he did not succeed ! tongue.gif

He should buy the jets on credit and napalm any villages that do nothing about the problem. No, he can't do that can he, then there would be no one left to vote for him.