First Cases Of Bird Flu Confirmed In Thailand

[mrentoul]

Thai officials on Friday reported four more suspected bird flu cases, including one death, and said the deadly virus had also been detected for the first time in the kingdom's south.

Early today the death was confirmed, but then 'unconfirmed' (moved to 'suspected' death status, not confirmed death status). So scratch that one.

[george]

Bird flu 'may have started last April'

Samples from an Asian country received recently date back to last year, with initial checks testing positive for virus

EVEN as bird flu continues to spread across Asia, signs are emerging that the outbreak could have begun much earlier than initially thought.

World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman Maria Cheng said yesterday that the current outbreak might have first surfaced in April last year, even though Asia's first cases of the virus were reported in South Korea only last month.p> Speaking to the BBC, she disclosed that the WHO received samples two weeks ago dating back to last April, and initial tests showed they were carrying the H5N1 virus which is now sweeping Asia.

She declined to say where the samples were from, but denied that they were from China.

WHO's latest announcement is in line with the conclusion reached by the New Scientist, a British scientific journal, which said that the current outbreak could have happened in the first half of last year.

Earlier this week, Thailand - in a surprise turnaround - said it had detected the virus last November. And on Sunday, Indonesia said it had spotted the disease last August.

The announcement bore out an Oct 28 circular by Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, which said it had 'received reports' that there was a bird flu outbreak in Indonesia.

With avian influenza rampaging at full force in Asia - 10 countries are now affected - some observers have commented that the actual date of the outbreak is immaterial.

But news that the virus could have broken out earlier is causing some concern, as it means that the virus would have had more time to spread.

Moreover, scientists are worried about a nightmare scenario: If the bird flu virus had the time to mix with a regular human flu strain, it could have created a mutant form that could be transmitted between humans.

This might trigger a human flu pandemic which has not been seen since the late 1960s, when the world was blighted by the so-called 'Hong Kong flu'.

The key to unravelling the timing question now sits with the samples being studied in a WHO lab at an undisclosed location.

The samples were taken from an Asian country last April, and preliminary checks have tested positive for bird flu, WHO spokesman Iain Simpson told The Straits Times.

'If we can find out where and when it spread, it will help in tracing the outbreak,' Mr Simpson said, adding that the final findings should be ready in 'days, or a week or two'.

While Mr Simpson and his colleagues have all denied that the samples were from China, speculation has focused on the country which was slow to admit it had Sars last year.

Quoting unidentified health experts, New Scientist said a mass vaccination exercise by Chinese producers - conducted after millions of chickens were culled in Hong Kong during the 1997 bird flu outbreak - might have backfired.

The vaccine was not a 'good match' for the virus, thus allowing the virus to 'spread widely without being spotted', the report said.

--Agencies 2004-01-31

[george]

Welcome carpet with a twist in Holland

THE HAGUE - Visitors from Asia arriving at Amsterdam airport will not get the red-carpet treatment. They will have to walk along disinfected carpets instead to prevent bird flu from creeping into the country.

All passengers from 10 countries - Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam - will have to walk along the carpets to remove any trace of the avian flu virus from their shoes.

Dutch Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman has called for similar measures across Europe.

-- AFP

[george]

"Eat chicken", Thais told, as bird flu spreads

BANGKOK - As a deadly bird flu virus appeared to be speeding towards Thailand's southern tourist hot spots, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Saturday urged Thais to eat more chicken, saying cooked poultry was perfectly safe.

"When it's cooked, it's one million percent safe," Thaksin said in his weekly radio address. "I don't want people to be afraid."

The virulent H5N1 flu virus, which has been found in 10 Asian countries, has killed at least six people in Vietnam and two in Thailand. All the victims caught the disease from infected birds, according to the World Health Organisation.

Thaksin's comment came just before the Health Minister said Thailand's number of suspected cases had risen to 14 from 12. Both new suspected cases are children, while a third person confirmed with the virus was in critical condition, the Prime Minister said.

Although the worst hit country in purely poultry terms, Thailand has limited the economic fallout just to its chicken industry, which is the world's fourth largest but which only accounts for around one percent of gross domestic product.

Holiday-makers may be eating a little less chicken but they do not appear worried enough to stay away, and the lucrative tourism sector, which accounts for about six percent of the economy, has been unaffected.

However, fears the tourist industry might also fall victim to the virus intensified on Friday when bird flu was found on a farm in the southern province of Phangnga, next door to the famed white-sand beaches and luxury resorts on Phuket.

Takua Pa district in northern Phangnga became Thailand's 126th epidemic spot when a dead chicken was found to have the avian influenza, which is now also taking an alarming hold in China.

Government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said on Saturday the outbreak in Phangnga appeared to be an isolated case, although it suggests assurances from Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsuthin that an end was in sight for the mass cull appeared premature.

Thailand has slaughtered about 14 million chickens out of a total flock of 180 million.

Bangkok on Saturday reduced the number of provinces declared epidemic zones to 25 from 29, though four new provinces were added. Jakrapob said the disease had been contained in some areas, where chickens were no longer dying from the virus.

IMAGE DAMAGE

Thaksin, a multi-millionaire former telecoms tycoon, has suffered damage to his image at home and abroad over his handling of the crisis, with opponents accusing his government of cover-ups and incompetence.

Senior livestock department officials had detected signs of bird flu in November in Nakhon Sawan, one of the hardest hit provinces, but kept quiet for fear it would hurt chicken exports and spark a public panic, the Bangkok Post reported on Saturday.

"The mass chicken deaths in Nakhon Sawan and the bird flu-like symptoms made us believe avian flu was already here at the time," Nimit Traiwanathan, director of the department's National Institute of Animal Health, was quoted as telling members of the senate health committee on Friday.

Earlier this week, Thaksin's chief spokesman described it as a "screw up" in the provinces where "we found there was lots of confusion about the kinds of information that needed to be reported upstairs".

With import bans on Thai chickens in place across the globe, Thaksin has embarked on a charm offensive to bolster the poultry sector, which employs hundreds of thousands of people, as a general election looms in 2005.

All his powers of persuasion will be needed to sway public opinion.

A poll this week showed 71 percent of professed "chicken lovers" were avoiding the meat and many farmers are furious with the government.

Before heading off to a KFC fast-food restaurant on the outskirts of Bangkok on Saturday, where he and other officials lunched on buckets of fried drumsticks, Thaksin said he would host a barbecue chicken lunch for the general public next week.

"If anybody comes to the party and eats cooked chicken and eggs and goes home and dies, then their family can come get the money from me," he said.

--Reuters 2004-01-31

[Dove]

Eating a well cooked bird may be safe but is it safe for the cook to handle if the raw bird had iondeed died from Avian flu.

The PM should appear giving on TV giving cooking classes featuring chicken dishes.

The program should be called "Thai Rak Gai Party".

[george]

Pigeons to be destroyed

BANGKOK: All pigeons in central Bangkok will be destroyed to prevent the spread of bird flu, a senior city official said yesterday. Areas that require urgent action are those where thousands of pigeons normally gather for food, like Sanam Luang, Wat Suthat Thepwararam and Wat Mahathat, the Deputy Bangkok Governor said.

The BMA will also ask the public not to feed birds, especially pigeons. The Livestock Development Department has advised city officials to mix bird feed with lao khao (traditional white liquor) to make it easy to catch the pigeons and later kill them.

Food vendors on Silom Road and near the Rama I Bridge will be instructed to clean their stalls with boiling water in order to prevent the possible spread of the virus. Numerous pigeons stay in the two areas, mostly hanging on electrical wires, and their droppings are a nuisance for both vendors and passers-by.

The Chatuchak district chief said that the local authorities were waiting for further instructions from the Bangkok governor about destroying fowl. He called on people raising birds in the control zone to voluntarily cull their birds.

-- The Nation 2004-01-31

[mrvietnam2001]

http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/380613|top|01-30-

2004::14:51|reuters.html

It is very bad news that Avian flu is spreading across China.

Bad news for the birds. And bad news for Asia travelers too.

China has cold weather. Cold season is Flu season.

If one person with Flu becomes infected with Avian Flu,

the two variant viruses could recombine. If they do -

watch out. A new form of highly-contagious Flu.

It is staggering to think of how many people could

be infected.

Unlike SARS, where warm weather regions seemed safe.

This Avian Flu could quickly move to warm weather areas

as well. Because the Flu is much more contagious than SARS.

[huski]

All passengers from 10 countries - Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam - will have to walk along the carpets to remove any trace of the avian flu virus from their shoes.

and all passengers from France will have to walk along the carpets to remove any trace of the evian flu virus from their shoes.

THAILAND'S prime minister today urged people to eat chicken and eggs as the country's billion dollar export industry dwindles, pledging 3 million baht ($98,665) of his own money in compensation if anyone dies from eating well-cooked chicken products.

Thais urged to eat chicken

ok my sweet little innocent soi dog died today from eating KFC and I need to know how to file for compensation

[francois]

THAILAND'S prime minister today urged people to eat chicken and eggs as the country's billion dollar export industry dwindles, pledging 3 million baht ($98,665) of his own money in compensation if anyone dies from eating well-cooked chicken products.

Sure ... everybody can believe what he says, he never lies ...

and do you know how much they pay for chicken when they take them away?

20 baths !!... any comment?

health, and financial crisis, let's see how the thai premier can deal with this!

[Axel]

and do you know how much they pay for chicken when they take them away?

20 baths !!... any comment?

Oui, I just was over to Saigon. They pay 5000 Dong per chicken. At 16,000 Dong per 1 US$ that makes over 3 chicken per buck.

Still, I had lunch there, b4 the flu was too wellknown. Ordered a chicken soup, a la carte and ws told

'Today the chicken not so good'

[castelleone]

"If anybody comes to the party and eats cooked chicken and eggs and goes home and dies, then their family can come get the money from me," he said.

How sarcastic and blasphemous must a person, in this case the PM be, to dare such a statement. It is frightening.

[Felt 35]

Here in the South we can relax. The birds dont die of bird flue but of poisoning. Or is this another plan for keeping tourist relaxed......

(PhuketGazette Sunday 1. February)

PHUKET: Fears surrounding the spread of avian ’flu have led members of the public to take matters into their own hands and poison wild birds, it was claimed today.

An autopsy conducted on a dead bird found in Phuket Town showed that it died from ingesting insecticide mixed with rice.

Officers from the Phuket Provincial Livestock Office (PPLO) have examined other birds found dead in the past week – including a peacock – and said all had been similarly poisoned.

Sunart Wongchawalit, the Chief of the PPLO, told the Gazette today that other provinces have reported similar unauthorized culls. Although cautious not to put a number on the deaths, K. Sunart said it seemed that the public was beginning its own vigilante action against the local bird population.

Official steps taken to prevent the H5N1 virus from spreading to Phuket include a ban on all imports of poultry to the island, with officers concentrating their efforts on monitoring sea and land routes into the province.

One person in neighboring Phang Nga province is suspected of having contracted the virus, and tens of thousands of birds have already been culled within a five-kilometer radius of a Takuapa farm where a number of birds were confirmed on Thursday to have died from avian ’flu.

[george]

New bird flu cases trigger new measures to contain disease in Asia

BANGKOK : More cases of the deadly bird flu virus erupted in Asia over the weekend, prompting new measures to contain the disease which has killed 10 people and led to a mass chicken cull across 10 affected nations.

In China, where two new suspected outbreaks were reported Saturday, authorities worked feverishly to contain the disease as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned further cases could emerge in the days ahead.

Officials ordered the killing of chickens, closed down poultry markets and stepped up surveillance, as the WHO urged speedy measures to curb the virus which is now either confirmed or suspected in six regions of the vast country.

"It's entirely conceivable that there could be more cases among poultry populations," said Roy Wadia, a Beijing-based WHO spokesman.

"It seems to be spreading very fast. Time is of the essence, and you have to keep up with the outbreak," he said.

The new suspected outbreaks were in Ezhou city of Hubei province and Chao'an county of Guangdong province. Suspected or confirmed cases have also hit the most populous city, Shanghai, and Anhui province in east China, central provinces Hunan and Hubei as well as Guangxi and Guangdong in the south.

No human cases of bird flu have been reported in the world's largest nation.

A ban was imposed Saturday on poultry exports from Shanghai, Anhui and Guangdong, which is one of China's top three poultry-producing provinces. Exports from the other regions were banned earlier this week.

Since the killer H5N1 virus strain emerged in South Korea late last year, Asian nations have quickly fallen prey to the disease which is believed to be spread by wild migrating birds.

More than 33 million chickens, ducks and other poultry have been culled across the region to curb the disease which has killed eight people in Vietnam and two in Thailand and been detected in birds in eight other countries.

Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam have all reported outbreaks of H5N1 among poultry, while Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains.

Thailand, where some 18.4 million birds have been slaughtered, said Saturday that despite its efforts the outbreak has spread to four more of its 76 provinces, for a total of 36 including the capital Bangkok.

In addition to the two six-year-old Thai boys who have died, a third child is battling for his life in hospital.

And another 14 cases including seven deaths are suspected, including three new cases announced Saturday, all boys aged three to six years who are in a critical condition.

Countries which have so far been spared from the lethal outbreak have responded by tightening quarantine regulations and banning poultry imports from affected nations.

About 250 healthy chickens and other birds are to be culled in Singapore as a precaution against the disease, although it has not yet reached the island-state, reports said Sunday.

Economic repercussions loom, with experts warning that the outbreak racing through Asia, home to a staggering seven billion chickens and the source of 27 percent of global poultry production, will disrupt agriculture sectors beyond devastating poultry industries.

"The recent spread of avian flu in Asia is a threat to human health and holds market implications which can be disruptive to local economies, reduce returns to regional commercial poultry operations and smallholders, and introduce uncertainty into the international meat markets," the Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

Indonesia, which has resisted calls for a cull beyond infected birds, said Sunday it had set aside 5.92 million dollars to compensate farmers culling sick poultry.

- AFP 2004-02-01

[Patong Bob]

Had a tourist - a regular - just arrived from Denmark yesterday. All his friends at home had been horrified when he told them he was going to Thailand - they think he will be killed by bird flu.

This will wreck the tourist industry as badly as that newspaper induced shock-horror SARS story did last year.

I'm for whatever gets you through the night - tranquilisers, prayer or a bottle of Jack Daniels  - Frank Sinatra

[mrentoul]

newspaper induced shock-horror SARS story did last year.

Err - it happened to be based on fact. People died - or have you forgotten?

[Spellbound]

Taskin, now just perhaps you have Egg on your face, with the reports coming through about human-human transmission.

'EAT MORE CHICKEN' PLEA

Thais have been urged to eat more chicken by their prime minister as bird flu continues to sweep across Asia.

As the World Health Organisation urged China to do more to combat the virus, Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said people needed to prop up the ailing poultry industry.

"When it's cooked, it's one million percent safe," Mr Thaksin said in his weekly radio address.

And before heading off to to a KFC fast-food restaurant to dine on buckets of chicken fried drumsticks, he invited the public to a barbecue chicken lunch.

"If anybody comes to the party and eats cooked chicken and eggs and goes home and dies, then their family can come get the money from me," he pronounced.

Two people have died of the infection in Thailand while another six have been killed in Vietnam.

Ten countries have admitted suffering from bird flu outbreaks, China being the latest.

Thailand itself has raised the tally of those infected from 12 to 14.

All those with the virus caught the virus from chickens and there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

Meanwhile, the WHO has warned China that the "window of opportunity" to contain the disease may be slipping away.

The country has been accused of covering up the date and scale of its outbreak.

Human Transmission Fear Over Bird Flu

Edit: URL corrected by admin

Edited February 1, 2004 by george

[george]

Thai senator emerges as whistle-blower in bird flu cover-up: report

Calls for resignation of Agriculture Minister and his deputy

BANGKOK : A whistle-blowing Thai senator has lashed out at government officials who she says were "at least two months late" in tackling the bird flu crisis now winging across Asia, a report said on Sunday.

Malinee Sukhawejworakit, a senator from Nakhon Sawan which was among the first of 36 provinces to report bird flu in the kingdom, said she went to her home province in November and discovered a calamity in the making - and concerted efforts to keep it under wraps.

"I first suspected bird flu in November when so many chicken deaths were reported in my constituency," Malinee told the Nation newspaper in an interview.

"I'd say that the government was at least two months late in managing this crisis properly," said Malinee, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Health.

Government officials who had "started out with the mistaken assumption that it wasn't the deadly (bird flu) disease" proceeded to pull the wool over the eyes of panicked farmers who were wrongly told the outbreak was not bird flu, she said in the English-language daily.

A lack of capability in testing for the deadly H5N1 virus strain in government laboratories added to the bungling, the paper cited her as saying.

"When you set out to handle a looming crisis in this manner, it's inevitable that the crisis will later explode in front of you like it did a couple of weeks ago," she said.

Two Thai boys have died and a third is ill from the virus, while seven more Thai deaths and seven illnesses are classified as suspected bird flu.

After repeated denials, the government on January 23 finally admitted that the disease had been detected.

Another Thai senator, Nirun Phitakwatchara, told AFP a day earlier that bird flu had been confirmed in a child in Suphan Buri province.

But Malinee, the Nation said, sounded the alarm January 19 by publicly charging the government with hiding findings about bird flu.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's credibility has taken a severe beating over the fiasco, with allegations that his government covered up the outbreak of the lethal disease for weeks.

The government conceded last Wednesday, as Thailand hosted international talks aimed at forging a united response to the crisis engulfing 10 Asian nations, that it had "screwed up" in its handling of the outbreak, but denied a deliberate cover-up.

Also in the Nation, the secretary general of the Thai Public Health Foundation, Rosana Tositrakul, called for the immediate resignation of Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsuthin and his deputy Newin Chidchob.

A government spokesman has pledged that heads would roll as a result of the crisis, but refused to say who would be sacked.

- AFP 2004-02-01

[george]

Thailand paying the price for flu coverup

By PHILIP CUNNINGHAM

Special to The Japan Times

BANGKOK -- Thai politicians belatedly ceded center stage to the public health experts as a strategy was mapped out to curb and contain the rapidly spreading avian flu. Until Jan. 23, the Thai government emphatically and continuously denied, in the face of mounting evidence and allegations of a coverup, that Thailand had been hit by avian flu. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra went as far as taking a few bites of fried chicken on TV to convince the Thai people, and the world, that there was no bird flu in Thailand and that Thai chicken was indeed safe to eat.

It's hard to overstate the importance of the humble chicken to Thai culture and economy. Thais eat chicken like Americans eat beef; it's the unofficial national meat, and of great pedigree. Biologists believe chickens were first domesticated in Thailand many millennia ago. In recent weeks, millions of chickens have died and millions more were culled, including 10,000 highly prized fighting cocks. But the biodiversity that gave rise to the ubiquitous bird, valued as much for its eggs as its meat, is diminished. Today, most of Thailand's 1 billion chickens live on factory farms, crammed into tight pens. If one bird gets sick, it can infect tens of thousands of others in short order.

Japan, the biggest importer of Thai chicken, announced a ban on imports, effectively shocking the Thai government out of its lax efforts to contain the disease and alerting the Thai public to the fact that chicken meat might possibly be infected. Despite appeals to patriotism and other reminders from the government that Thai chicken is safe to eat, chicken consumption has dropped to an all-time low.

With all the spin and public relations coming out of Thaksin's CEO-style government these days, a worldwide phenomenon of which Thailand is just a part, it's hard to know what to believe anymore. U.S. President George W. Bush's similarly televised beef-eating photo opportunity did little to reassure. When Japan, the biggest single customer of Thailand's booming poultry business announced a ban on Thai chicken, the arrogant denials became harder to sustain.

As with the political fumbling of SARS in China, politicians, not scientists, controlled the information flow in the early days of the outbreak, blaming the messenger while offering blanket denials and odd alternative explanations (early SARS casualties in China were blamed on a rare form of airborne chlamydia, whereas in Thailand, the massive chicken casualties were blamed on cold weather and fowl cholera.

How could the coverup of such a critical life and death issue happen in Thailand, a country traditionally known for its vigorous free press? Sadly, the political climate has changed in recent months under Thaksin's stewardship, especially after last year's war on drugs -- marked by some 2,500 murders -- which human-rights groups have characterized as extra-judicial killings. This and other crackdowns have created a climate of fear in tandem with near daily attacks on the press and individuals who dare to disagree with the ruling party. Given the CEO-governing style of the prime minister, when he says something, his subordinates are not inclined to disagree.

China's reaction to SARS and Thailand's reaction to avian flu are strikingly similar in a number of ways. Both China and Thailand lack unfettered transparency in reporting. In China, the party controls most media; in Thailand, Thaksin controls all broadcast media. According to the Thai Journalist Association's most recent annual report, the print media has been effectively reined in as well, creating a leader with a loud voice, somewhat akin to Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

In both cases, there were early press reports indicating a potential problem, followed by a lengthy coverup, motivated at best by wishful thinking, in which the disease silently wreaked havoc. The idea seems to have been not so much to cover up -- after all one can hardly blame the government for the onset of something such as the flu (which is said to have been randomly transmitted by migratory birds around Lake Boraphet at Thailand's ground zero) -- as it was to buy time and to maintain political and economic stability, postponing a reckoning with the truth.

As the disease spread in each case, anecdotal evidence of a mystery disease was reported, but followup was rare, due in part to government warnings. One provincial farmer in Thailand told a local reporter he was certain chickens were dying from avian flu, but refused to be identified for fear his life. Given the sensitivity of each country's economy to anything that might thwart trade and tourism, the stakes were high.

In both cases, government response to the disease went from deliberately muted under-reaction to dynamic over-reaction. The turning point came on the heels of reports by unimpeachable medical sources that the disease in question had been confirmed in the hospital.

In China's case, a courageous army doctor helped break the story; in Thailand, Siriraj Hospital, used on occasion by the revered Thai monarch, announced that avian flu had indeed infected people, putting rest to further politically motivated denials.

In both cases, bureaucratic denial made containment difficult. Had Thailand reacted to the earliest reports in Prachachart Thurakij and farmers' complaints in Nakorn Sawan, the eventual proliferation -- 20 provinces at the time of writing -- might have been averted. Avian flu is "not scary like SARS," says Thai Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, awkwardly trying to explain weeks of official denials. The more serious question regarding avian flu remains: To what extent could this attain plaguelike proportions? Evidence from earlier outbreaks suggests it is harder to catch than SARS, but the infection is more deadly.

Thailand's vernacular press has at last broken the taboo of not directly criticizing the powerful prime minister, demanding immediate accountability. With the flu felling fowl in astronomical numbers, confirmed cases of chicken-to-human infection rising and two children dead so far, why the coverup in the first place?

--PHILIP CUNNINGHAM 2004-02-02 for Japan Times

Philip Cunningham teaches media studies in the faculty of communication arts at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

[george]

Three more Thais die of suspected bird flu infections

BANGKOK : Three more Thais suspected of having bird flu have died, bringing the toll from the disease to ten suspected deaths and two confirmed fatalities, health officials said on Monday.

"We have found another five suspected cases which raises the figure from 14 on Saturday to 19 today," disease control department director Charal Trinvuthipong told reporters.

"Three of the five new suspected cases have died, which raises the death toll of suspected cases to ten. Nine are still alive."

The three dead were all men, a 38-year-old from northeastern Khon Kaen province, a 21-year-old from northeastern Uttaradit province and a 42-year-old from central Lop Buri province, Charal said.

The other two new suspected cases were boys aged one and five from Khon Kaen.

The two confirmed deaths here were two boys, both six years old, who died on January 25 and 27.

The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has also caused eight deaths in Vietnam but the other eight countries hit with bird flu have not reported any human infections.

Besides Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea have all reported outbreaks of H5N1 among poultry, while Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains.

Meanwhile China on Monday woke up to the news that confirmed or suspected bird flu cases had been reported in one third of the country, as a mass killing of chickens in the remote northwest triggered worries that the virus may be spreading even further.

Beginning at dawn, officials in Anning district, part of destitute Gansu province, started killing thousands of chickens within a three-kilometre radius of a farm where poultry started dying mysteriously last week.

"Just to make sure," said an official with the Gansu health department's disease control section.

He said what happened around the farm could "maybe" be characterized as a suspected case of bird flu, and that a sample from the sick chicken at the farm had been sent to the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing for further tests.

Gansu borders China's vast Xinjiang region, which had been added to the list of Chinese areas with suspected bird flu cases, suggesting that far larger parts of the country than previously reported may have been hit.

With Sunday's announcement of five new cases, a total of 14 confirmed and suspected outbreaks have been reported, affecting 10 out of China's 31 provincial-level regions.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned repeatedly in recent days that China faces a rapidly closing window of opportunity if it wants to deal efficiently with the epidemic.

According to the China Daily, the issue of disease reporting was "highlighted" at an emergency meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday, and since then new suspected outbreaks have been announced in rapid succession.

China, the world's second-largest producer of chicken meat and the fifth-largest exporter, could see severe economic pain if bird flu were to expand further.

"Resources (needed) to combat a disease whose ultimate threat is difficult to assess will be considerable," the China Daily said in an editorial.

"They are also needed to provide long-term protection of the nation's still toddling agricultural industry," he said.

--AFP 2004-02-02

[george]

Asian bird flu death toll hits 12 as virus spreads

HANOI/BANGKOK - Two more people have died after contracting bird flu, bringing to 12 the number of deaths in an epidemic that is sweeping Asia and which scientists fear may now be transmitted from person to person.

The deaths -- a 58 year-old-woman in Thailand and a teenage boy in Vietnam -- come a day after the World Health Organisation said two sisters who died in Vietnam last month probably caught the virus from their brother -- the first cases of human-to-human infection in the current epidemic.

The brother also died, but he was cremated before an autopsy could be performed and so it could not categorically be determined if he was the original source. His wife also contracted bird flu but has since recovered.

Stock markets fell in Hong Kong and Thailand as economists said the possibility of human transmission would have much more serious implications.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak last year cost Asia an estimated $60 billion and there are worries that bird flu could have a similar or even worse effect if it spreads further.

"At the moment the disease is largely restricted to where the chickens are," said Rob Subbaraman, regional economist at Lehman Brothers.

"But if we got strong evidence of transmission from human to human and there was a risk of it getting into crowded areas like shopping malls and public transport, it would cause an economic disruption."

In China, home to the largest number of poultry in the world, bird flu was reported from a new area -- Gansu province in the northwest, state radio said on Monday.

Eleven provinces and regions, about one-third of the country, have been affected by the virus and authorities there have culled tens of thousands of birds, including about 20,000 in Gansu.

Hospital officials in Vietnam's southern city of Ho Chi Minh said the teenage boy who died on Monday had caught the virus after eating meat from a chicken with avian influenza.

"The boy was admitted to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City on January 29 and tested positive for the H5N1 virus on January 31," said a doctor.

A hospital official added: "We know that he ate chicken that died from the bird flu virus."

The latest Thai victim was a woman who raised chickens in Suphanburi province 100 km (60 miles) west of Bangkok.

More details of her death have yet to be released, but Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- under fire for reacting slowly to the outbreak -- lambasted the WHO for suggesting the flu could mutate and spread to pigs and then even more easily to humans.

"Ethically speaking, researchers should only discuss low possibilities of such cross-strain spreads in labs, not in public," Thaksin told reporters.

WHO said another Thai died several days ago from bird flu, but health ministry officials said the toll remained at three.

NINE PATIENTS WITH SYMPTOMS

Chief government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair told reporters there were nine people suspected of being infected with bird flu -- one a boy who doctors say has a 30 percent chance of survival.

Thailand has so far destroyed 25.9 million fowl in a bid to stamp out the virus.

The United Nations is holding a special meeting on Tuesday of experts from three of its agencies -- the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health -- to discuss how best to tackle the epidemic.

"The eruption of new infection cases in Thailand, China and Vietnam shows that the disease is far from being under control," He Changthui, FAO regional representative for Asia-Pacific, told a news conference in the Thai capital.

"Governments should openly share data and information about control campaigns in view of the regional dimensions of the crisis."

Health experts worry the virus could combine with human flu to create a drug-resistant bug that could cause the world's next big pandemic -- dwarfing the impact of SARS last year.

The Asian Development Bank estimates SARS cost Asia US$60 billion as tourists cancelled trips and consumers fearing infection shunned restaurants and stores.

But Bjorn Melgaard, the WHO representative in Thailand, said he did not think the bird flu virus would badly affect humans.

"The initial information we have about the current virus is it is a purely avian virus," he said. "It's not a very efficient virus in terms of infecting humans."

Ten countries in Asia have now reported cases of bird flu and millions of chickens and ducks across the region have died of the disease or been culled to prevent the virus spreading. But only two countries -- Thailand and Vietnam -- have recorded the virus in humans.

--Reuters 2004-02-03

[george]

4-year Thai boy suspected of having bird flu dies

BANGKOK - A 4-year-old boy suspected of having bird flu died Tuesday in Thailand, a government spokesman said.

Prapasit Taopramong died at a hospital in northeastern Khon Kaen province, and an autopsy and lab tests will determine whether the child died from avian influenza, said government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair.

Thailand has confirmed three deaths due to the bird flu that is ravaging poultry stocks across Asia.

The boy who died Tuesday is among 18 suspected bird flu cases in Thailand, 11 of whom have died.

A total of 12 people have been confirmed dead from bird flu in Asia, with nine of the victims in Vietnam.

Most of the human cases have been traced to direct contact with sick birds. Testing for the virus in people can take as long as two weeks, officials have said.

-AP 2004-02-03

[george]

Thaksin slams WHO bird flu speculation

Thai PM hits out at suggestion bird flu is transmitted between humans; WHO says there is no evidence yet to confirm this

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday slammed the World Health Organisation (WHO) for speculating that the bird flu virus had been transmitted between humans in Vietnam.

'Normally the ethics of researchers is such that if there is only a slight possibility of something happening, then they will discuss it among themselves, they will not say anything to the public to raise concern,' Mr Thaksin told reporters.

The Thai premier, who is trying to contain public panic and prop up sagging faith in the poultry industry, added: 'If the possibility is higher than 5 per cent they should say something, but if it is under 5 per cent they should not say anything.

'The possibility of human-to-human transmission is 0.00001 per cent,' the prime minister said to emphasise the remote possibility of such transmission. He did not say how he arrived at the figure.

His remarks came as two more people died yesterday after contracting bird flu, raising the death toll to 12.

The deaths of a 58-year-old woman in Thailand and an 18-year-old boy in Vietnam came a day after the WHO said two sisters who died of bird flu in Vietnam last month may have caught it from their brother, who also died.

Yesterday, the WHO appeared to moderate its earlier statement, saying there was 'no evidence of efficient human-to-human transmission of H5N1 occurring in Vietnam or elsewhere'.

'It doesn't seem that we have crossed the threshold into the scenario of general human-to-human transmission in the population,' the WHO's Vietnam spokesman Bob Dietz said.

'This case remains an anomaly but one that has to be fully understood before we can draw any greater conclusions about the course of infections.'

The WHO has been warning that the bird flu virus might mutate into one that can spread from person to person.

So far, it has drawn a distinction between a general transmission of the disease among humans and a more 'limited transmission', which is limited to a short chain of people with the virus apparently 'vanishing' after causing the cluster of infections.

In the wake of the new deaths in Thailand and Vietnam, avian flu experts are due to meet today at Food and Agricultural Organisation headquarters in Rome to discuss responses to the current crisis.

Key individuals from South-East Asian countries will also attend or take part through teleconferencing, an FAO official told The Straits Times.

The latest Thai victim was a woman who raised chickens in Suphanburi province, north-west of Bangkok.

Mr Thaksin's spokesman, Mr Jakrapob Penkair, told reporters nine people were suspected of being infected with bird flu - one a young boy who doctors said had only a 30 per cent chance of survival.

The Vietnamese death was the second from the south of the country, other cases being from the north.

The WHO representative in Thailand, Mr Bjorn Melgaard, said yesterday he did not think the virus would spread widely in humans.

'The initial information we have about the current virus is it is a purely avian virus. It's not a very efficient virus in terms of infecting humans,' he said.

'The risk is the creation of a new virus through the combination of the current avian virus with the human virus.'

Health experts are concerned that another aggressive human influenza virus from the Northern Hemisphere may reach South-East Asia and combine with the bird flu virus.

'We are getting some reports of human influenza here but it is difficult to say how widespread it is,' Mr Dietz said yesterday in Hanoi.

--Agencies 2004-02-03

[mrentoul]

'Normally the ethics of researchers is such that if there is only a slight possibility of something happening, then they will discuss it among themselves, they will not say anything to the public to raise concern,' Mr Thaksin told reporters.

He still doesn't get it. It's not up to him to make such decisions. People have a right to know, however remote the possibility.

Evidently he learnt nothing from his last cover-up, and the resulting uproar.

Where does this paternalism come from?

[francois]

LATEST NEWS ...

Thailand, the world's fourth biggest exporter of chicken, has had four confirmed cases, three of whom have died and the fourth, a seven-year-old boy, has only a 30 percent chance of survival.

Chief government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said a four-year-old boy from Thailand's northeastern province of Khon Kaen had died Tuesday of suspected bird flu, taking the number of suspected human infections to 18, of whom 11 have died.

But laboratory tests have yet to confirm that the deaths are attributable to bird flu. The country has killed 30 million poultry and hopes it has turned the corner.

Jakrapob said the number of "red zones" -- the 5-km (3-mile) area around a confirmed outbreak in which all poultry must be slaughtered -- had shrunk by half to 18 in seven provinces from 35 in 16 provinces Monday.

Last week, 29 of Thailand's 76 provinces had "red zones."

The Chinese capital, Beijing, particularly sensitive after it was hit last year by SARS, another virus that is thought to have crossed the species barrier from animals to humans, stepped up checks for bird flu, although it has yet to report any cases.

The Beijing Star News said the capital had set up 200 bird flu monitoring stations, and banned imports of live chickens from other provinces.

"We will win the battle with the precious experience we gained in combating the SARS crisis last year," official news agency Xinhua quoted Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, head of the National Bird Flu Prevention Headquarters, as saying.

Eleven of China's 31 provinces have confirmed or suspected outbreaks of avian influenza. Authorities have culled or vaccinated thousands of fowl nationwide.

At one site, authorities placed about 3,200 farmers in bird-flu-infected Ezhou city in Hubei province under medical observation for three weeks. They would be isolated if they had a fever or caught a cold, the Beijing News said. (Reporting by Trirat Puttajanyawong and Chawadee Nualkhair in Bangkok; Cher Gao and Benjamin Kang Lim in Beijing, Christina Toh-Pantin in Hanoi and Telly Nathalia in Jakarta)

Reuters 2004-03-02

[pal78]

'Normally the ethics of researchers is such that if there is only a slight possibility of something happening, then they will discuss it among themselves, they will not say anything to the public to raise concern,' Mr Thaksin told reporters.

He still doesn't get it. It's not up to him to make such decisions. People have a right to know, however remote the possibility.

Evidently he learnt nothing from his last cover-up, and the resulting uproar.

Where does this paternalism come from?

No it's not up to him, but I think he's right. I know your thoughts on this and I know I still can't spell, and of course I'm a left-wing dumb ass so once all that is out in the open....

What is to be gained by telling people that it could spread from human to human when there are no confirmed cases of that so far. It's spin. Think about it. Suspected number of people to have bird flu is 20 and the number to have died is 12. I'm in Ireland at the moment and the news reporting we get would have you think that it's much worse than that. We even got pictures of a little boy's body being burned.

I realise that the topic here is bird flu, but common flu (if there is such a thing) is a killer too. In fact it accounted for 2.6% of all deaths in the US in 2001. In 2003 many died in the US from a very aggressive flu that had very bad respiratory symptoms... but of course it wasn't SARS. SARS only happened in Canada, China, Ireland and places like that... not in the US.

In 2001 Alzheimer's Disease was the cause of 2.2% of deaths in the US, up over 100% on 1998 which was up 1200% on 1979. What is Alzheimer's Disease? What causes it? Why is it spreading out of control? Am I going to get it? Panic people it's a killer! No we don't panic about that because only old people get it. Why aren’t they telling us more about it though. It doesn't pass from person to person does it? Yet it manages to reach so many people.

CJD has similar symptoms and it can take as long as 30 years for these symptoms to become apparent so it would be more likely to be seen in older people. I know you have faith in the medical system but what if Alzheimer's and CJD are so alike that it's easy enough to mix them up when diagnosing them. What if some of the 4.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's actually have CJD that they got from eating BSE infected beef?

13% of Alzheimer's acutally CJD?

You're going to start telling me that that's all a pile of crap. But think about it. The WHO is scaring the living piss out of people with a killer flu that might under the right conditions mutate with a human form flu and start spreading from person to person and with no cure it could kill a whole load of people.

I understand that Thaksin is a idiot and I realise that his reasons for wanting to play this down are selfish but does that mean that there is no truth at all in what he is saying. The US played down the recent cases of BSE there, yet they played up the outbreak that happened in the UK, and used it as a promotion platform for US beef. Now it's ok to eat the beef as long as you don't eat the brain... but then UK beef would kill you and you should play it safe with US beef... from the same country that has 4.5 million people suffering from CJD-like symptoms.

Anyway Thaksin is a typical rich boy leader. Lie and cheat to get rich, why stop doing it when you are the man in charge. Bush is now looking for the "truth" about the WMD in Iraq... might have been a good idea to get that "truth" before you start a war buddy... but yeah Thaksin is an ###### for misleading us about this killer flu. And compared to other stand-up world leaders like…, like….., well there must be at least one honest one out there, ok… well anyway that doesn’t matter because Thaksin is really bad.

[george]

EU extends Thai poultry ban for six months

The European Union Tuesday extended a ban on imports of Thai poultry and pet birds from Asia for six months amid an outbreak of deadly bird flu.

"Although the risk of importing the virus in meat or meat products is probably low, the EU wants to make sure that any possible transmission is avoided," an EU statement said after a meeting of EU food-safety experts.

The ban, which will now run until August 15, concerns imports of poultry from Thailand and pet birds from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

"It will be kept under constant review with a view to amending it earlier if the situation allows for it," the EU statement said.

The EU ban was announced on January 23 after Thailand belatedly confirmed it was suffering an outbreak of the bird flu, which has killed 13 people across Asia.

The EU imported 136,000 tonnes of Thai chicken products in the first 11 months of 2003, about one percent of its total chicken imports, according to Commission figures. Ninety percent of the Thai meat went to Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Experts say the virus is transmitted to humans through close contact with infected live chickens, rather than by eating their meat. Thailand does not export live poultry or hatching eggs to the EU.

The EU ban does not apply to imports of Thai chickens that were slaughtered before January 1, or that have been heat-treated to over 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) before being processed.

EU chicken producers are required to send back consignments of Thai chicken received after January 1.

The EU last year tackled an outbreak of a different bird flu strain which killed a veterinarian in the Netherlands and prompted the cull of 25 million chickens.

--AFP 2004-02-03

[george]

WHO Warns Against Creating Bird Flu Panic

GENEVA - The United Nations health agency sought Tuesday to dampen fears of bird flu striking large numbers of people, even as the death toll in Asia climbed to 13.

A 7-year-old boy became the fourth person to die from the disease in Thailand. Vietnam has reported nine fatalities.

"I think it's very important at this stage that we remain calm about worst-case scenarios," said Mike Ryan, head of the global epidemic response network at the World Health Organization. "What we're dealing with at the moment is small clusters of cases associated with exposure to poultry."

"We have a strain of influenza with the potential to pick up human genes, and we're nowhere close to declaring a pandemic," Ryan told reporters.

Asia's bird flu crisis topped the agenda at a three-day emergency meeting beginning Tuesday at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. Experts hope to work out strategies for tackling the outbreak and preventing future one.

Joseph Domenech, chief of the FAO animal health department, addressed the concern the virus could mutate.

"Today we are not at this stage, but until now the veterinary, the animal outbreaks, are multiplying. It's still an increasing curve, so if it continues that way, the risks are still more and more important," he said.

Ten Asian countries are battling bird flu, also known as avian influenza, and at least 45 million chickens have been slaughtered across the region to stop its spread. Cases in humans have been reported only in Vietnam and Thailand, with most traced to direct contact with sick birds.

Fears the disease had spread to Europe subsided after doctors said a German tourist who came down with flu-like symptoms after visiting Thailand was most likely free of the disease.

Investigators have been unable to trace the infections of two Vietnamese women to contact with chickens and have not ruled out human-to-human transmission. But even if the women did catch the disease from a family member, limited transmission of the virus between people is not the real danger.

What experts fear most is the virus mutating into a form that passes easily between people - a pandemic strain that is a hybrid of the bird virus and a normal human influenza variety.

"What we're saying is that we're not dealing with an imminent threat to public health, but we are dealing with a potential threat to public health," Ryan said.

The other countries battling the disease are China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan. However, health officials say the strain of bird flu striking Taiwan and Pakistan is milder and is not considered a serious threat to humans.

Ryan, who steered WHO's response to last year's SARS epidemic in Asia and Canada, said authorities worldwide must keep bird flu under close surveillance.

"This latest avian influenza outbreak sends another shot across the bows, another warning to us that we must be ready in the event of the emergence of a pandemic strain," he said. "While we're watching, we've got to be preparing."

WHO has sent teams to the region and to the meeting in Rome. At least 25 international experts from 15 countries were attending that meeting, including high-level veterinary officials from affected nations and representatives of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials say destroying infected birds, if safely carried out, is the best way to contain the disease, but the mass slaughter and import bans have ravaged Asia's poultry industry.

WHO officials have said people who eat poultry are not at risk from bird flu but that import restrictions on live birds are needed to halt the spread of the disease among farm flocks.

The European Union and Japan have both barred poultry products from Thailand, with the EU extending its ban Tuesday for another six months. The extension also applies to a ban on pet birds from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

Asian tourism has begun to suffer, although WHO has not issued any travel warnings as it did during the SARS outbreak.

WHO also is spearheading the hunt for a bird flu vaccine. Ryan said prototypes developed by the agency will shortly be supplied to pharmaceutical companies so they can begin research on a useable vaccine, which experts expect to be ready within months.

"This is something that is very achievable, this is not some brave new world," Ryan said. "Giving a worst-case scenario without taking into account our possibility to intervene successfully (with a vaccine) I think at this point would be scaremongering."

--AP 2004-02-04

[plachon]

'Normally the ethics of researchers is such that if there is only a slight possibility of something happening, then they will discuss it among themselves, they will not say anything to the public to raise concern,' Mr Thaksin told reporters.

He still doesn't get it. It's not up to him to make such decisions. People have a right to know, however remote the possibility.

Evidently he learnt nothing from his last cover-up, and the resulting uproar.

Where does this paternalism come from?

No, of course he "doesn't get it" and never will. The strong streak of paternalism is genetic I suspect, both paternal and maternal, stretching back for centuries of absolute state control over the masses, where questioning your leaders is considered "unpatriotic" at best, treasonable at worst.

[mrentoul]

How could the coverup of such a critical life and death issue happen in Thailand, a country traditionally known for its vigorous free press?

I think it's time this fanciful notion was seen off. Vigorous? Free?

Come off it.

[george]

Suspected victim hospitalised in Phang Nga

PHANG NGA: -- One person has been hospitalised with suspected avian flu in Phang Nga and tens of thousands of chickens and ducks are set to be slaughtered in the coming few days after an outbreak was confirmed on a farm in Takua Pa district yesterday afternoon.

Pairat Dejsiri, assistant chief of Phang Nga Provincial Livestock Office (PNPLO), confirmed that chickens on a farm in Takua Pa had been found to have died from the H5N1 virus.

Pairat said that the suspected human victim of the potentially deadly disease was under careful observation and that it had yet to be confirmed whether this was a case of avian ’flu.

However, he added: “This person had nothing to do with live chickens.” He said that, a few days ago, a chicken farmer found that about 20 of his ducks and 15 chickens had died. He reported the deaths to the PNPLO and the dead animals were taken to the Southern Veterinary Research and Development Centre (SVRDC), which confirmed the presence of the virus yesterday.

“We immediately reported this to the governor of the province and we declared Takua Pa district a birdflu danger zone. All chickens within a radius of five kilometres of the farm were ordered to be slaughtered.”

“We have already killed 13,052 chickens and ducks from three farms in Tambon Bang Nai Sri and we expect to have to kill between 70,000 and 90,000 more in the district within the week.”

Pairat said he had sought help from the Royal Thai Navy at the Tab Lamu base for the operation.

He said that Phang Nga Governor Samacha Potaworn had explained the necessity for the slaughter to local chicken farmers.

He had also reassured them that, because their farms were in a declared danger zone, they would receive government compensation for the slaughtered birds.

“We have set up checkpoints to prevent fowl from being moved in or out of the danger zone,” he added.

Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura ordered a ban on all imports of chickens, ducks and eggs into Phuket three days ago, before the Phang Nga outbreak was discovered.

--The Nation 2004-02-04