Bird Flu Kills Three In New Asia Health Scare

[george]

Bird Flu Kills Three in New Asia Health Scare

HANOI - Asia faced a new health scare on Tuesday after three Vietnamese died from "bird flu," but the WHO said there are no signs yet an outbreak that has ravaged the region's poultry industry is spreading between people.

"The evidence to date is that there is no sign of human-to-human transmission," Dr. Shigeru Omi of the World Health Organization said in a statement.

But he said the consequences would be dire if the virus latched on to the human influenza virus and spread among people, who have little immune protection against the strain.

"The ensuing virus would then be highly pathogenic and transmissable," said Omi, the WHO's Regional Director for the Western Pacific.

In a region already alarmed by the return of SARS, health officials say they are worried by the rapid spread of H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, in Japan, South Korean and Vietnam.

The WHO said tests conducted by a Hong Kong laboratory confirmed that bird flu killed one adult and two children from the Hanoi area.

They were among 14 people who fell ill with influenza in Hanoi and surrounding provinces. Eleven of the 13 children and the mother of one of the children died.

Omi said there was no evidence so far linking the remaining cases to the flu virus that has killed nearly one million chickens in Vietnam. But investigators are exploring the possibility they were exposed to the same poultry.

The H5N1 avian flu virus spreads rapidly among poultry but rarely infects humans. Six people died in Hong Kong in 1997 during an outbreak of avian influenza and last year it infected a father and son in the crowded city.

"I AVOIDED CHICKEN"

Hanoi declared last week that it had been struck by a fast-spreading bird flu that has hit other countries in Asia, which has a vast poultry industry.

South Korea, which has already culled nearly two million chickens and ducks, reported its first new case of avian flu in more than a week Tuesday, dashing hopes the outbreak was subsiding.

Hundreds of people living in affected areas have been given blood tests, although a health official said Tuesday no one had shown symptoms of the disease.

In Japan, where the first bird flu outbreak in years was reported Monday, the government vowed to protect consumers already worried about the safety of beef, fish and eggs.

"I am very worried. When I bought my lunch today, I avoided chicken," said computer worker Masako Kuramoto, 49, as she emerged from a supermarket in central Tokyo.

Shares in Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan fell due to the scare, but a company spokeswoman said its chicken was 100 percent safe.

Thailand, which produces about one billion chickens a year and exports mainly to Japan and Europe, said it was free of bird flu but was battling an outbreak of poultry cholera.

"I would like to insist that Thailand is free of bird flu," Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, director of the Agriculture Ministry's Livestock Disease Control Division, told Reuters.

The government has destroyed hundreds of thousands of chickens since November to stop the spread of a virulent strain of poultry cholera, known as Pasteurella Multocida Type A, which cannot spread to humans, Nirundorn said.

The bird flu scare had no impact on shares in Thailand's major chicken exporters, but some neighboring countries are taking no chances.

Deeply impoverished Cambodia, sandwiched between Vietnam and Thailand, said it had banned poultry imports from neighboring countries last week and sent experts to its chicken farms.

China, blamed by political rival Taiwan for a case of bird flu last month, said it had no cases.

"There has been no outbreak of bird flu and regular monitoring is conducted all over the country," a disease control official at the Agriculture Ministry official told Reuters.

--Reuters alertnet 2004-01-04

[george]

Follow up:

Thai chickens dying from cholera, weather-related illnesses

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Thailand is free of the bird flu that has wreaked havoc in other Asian countries, but chickens at local poultry farms have been dying from cholera and illnesses caused by rapid changes in the weather, officials said Wednesday.

"The bottom line is that there is no bird flu in Thailand,'' Pranee Panitpong, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry's livestock department, told reporters.

However, chickens are dying as a result of poultry cholera and quick temperature drops that have left them vulnerable to infection, she said.

On Tuesday, the acting director of the Livestock Disease Control Bureau, Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, said lab tests had shown that some chickens at local farms were suffering from cholera, a bacterial infection caused by poor hygiene at some poultry farms.

Local farmers have alleged that the government is trying to cover up an outbreak of the bird flu, or avian influenza, to protect its chicken exports, local media reports said. Thailand is among the world's largest poultry exporters.

The avian flu generally infects only birds, but has spread to humans in a few isolated cases and has killed at least three people in Vietnam.

Bird flu has killed millions of chickens in South Korea, Vietnam and Japan, where officials have ordered mass culls to try to contain the outbreak. Hong Kong and Cambodia have banned poultry imports from countries affected by the disease.

The World Health Organization has advised the Thai government to step up surveillance of human influenza as a precaution following the outbreaks in the region, WHO Thailand representative Dr. Bjorn Melgaard said.

He said Thai authorities were conducting random tests on ailing chickens at local poultry farms. Thousands of chickens have reportedly died in recent weeks.

"There are something like 100 cases and none of them have been bird flu,'' he told The Associated Press.

Last year, prices of Thai chickens exported to two of its biggest markets _ Japan and Europe _ surged because of shortages caused by outbreaks of bird flu in leading poultry-producing countries.

Thailand benefited from shortages caused by the highly contagious disease in China, the Netherlands and Belgium, an executive at Thailand's largest chicken producer, Charoen Pokphand Foods, was quoted as saying in local media reports.

All three countries are major poultry exporters.

--AP 2004-01-14

[p1p]

No worries, Can't come here....

[george]

Update:

Thousands of chicken dead in Thailand

BANGKOK: - Thailand, one of Asia's largest poultry exporters, said Wednesday it was free of the bird flu epidemic which has swept parts of Asia, but said hundreds of thousands of chickens have died from cholera and bronchitis.

Deputy agriculture minister Newin Chidchob told reporters that checks had been carried out across 23 of Thailand's 76 provinces and no evidence of avian influenza had been uncovered.

"I can offer reassurances that there is no outbreak of bird flu in Thailand. There is only bronchitis and fowl cholera, not the bird flu," Newin said. "The ministry checked farms across 23 provinces and did not find any evidence related to bird flu in any single area."

More than 200,000 chickens have died of outbreaks of fowl cholera and bronchitis since November, however, and another 200,000 have been culled to prevent the spread of the diseases, he said.

He blamed the outbreaks on a sudden change to cooler weather in the kingdom.

The ministry of agriculture also said it had taken the precautionary measure of banning imports of poultry from any country affected by bird flu. Vietnam, Japan and South Korea have so far reported outbreaks.

An official from the ministry of commerce told AFP that Thailand does not import poultry, so the ban would have little impact. Newin nonetheless said he ordered quarantine officials to be vigilant at airports in Bangkok, northern Chiang Mai and southern Hat Yai.

--AFP 2004-01-15