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[Buff-horns]

BIRD-FLU OUTBREAK: Virus now in 39 provinces

Published on October 25, 2005

Cases of suspected human infections on the rise as villagers resist efforts by livestock officials to cull fowl. Avian influenza has spread to more than half the country, with 39 provinces reporting confirmed or suspected cases of fresh bird-flu infections. Last week, the authorities had just 21 provinces under close watch for bird flu, suggesting the virus is spreading rapidly.

Meanwhile, Kanchanaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Suphan Buri and Kamphaeng Phet have been put on a list of provinces with severe bird-flu problems.

“We are receiving more and more reports of fowl deaths,” Jatuporn Kamchuen, the livestock chief of Kanchanaburi’s Phanom Thuan district, said yesterday. Livestock officials were busy culling fowl suspected of contracting bird flu.

At the same time, he complained that officials were facing resistance from some villagers who had tried to prevent officials from taking their birds. “We need to raise people’s understanding of the situation.”

Last week, two residents of Phanom Thuan district became the latest confirmed bird-flu patients in the country. One has since died.

As of yesterday, three others in Kanchanaburi were on a list of people suspected of catching bird flu. Kanchanaburi public-health chief Surapong Tanthanasrikul said health volunteers were going to areas where bird-flu infections had been reported to check whether the disease had spread to any other people.

Samart Prasitphol, a senior livestock official in Kanchanaburi, said staff had set up checkpoints to enforce the ban on the movement of birds as a measure to curtail the spread of the deadly disease.

In Kamphaeng Phet, provincial public-health chief Wittaya Supornphan said all community hospitals across the province had been instructed to form teams at the provincial, district, and tambon levels to work round-the-clock in case a report of human infection arises.

“They must provide medical supplies, test kits and protective clothing to personnel who have to work with patients suspected of catching bird flu,” Wittaya said.

He added that state and private hospitals were working closely with local administrative bodies to control the outbreak.

In Nakhon Pathom, Dr Pinij Hiranchote, director of the provincial hospital, disclosed that there was a suspected case of human-infection in the central province.

“We have kept him under close medical supervision,” he said.

In Phitsanulok, provincial livestock chief Wannee Santamanas said more than 3,400 fowl had been culled in Bang Rakam district alone after some died suspiciously en masse.

“We are now waiting for the lab-test results,” she said.

Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said there were only 12 laboratories outside Bangkok that could determine within 24 hours whether a person has caught bird flu. He has instructed the Medical Sciences Department to set up mobile labs, which could be sent to conduct tests in areas where outbreaks of bird flu have been reported.

Dr Paijit Warachit, who heads the department, said the mobile labs should be ready to begin operations within 10 days. “We plan to dispatch the mobile labs to Kanchanaburi and Kamphaeng Phet first,” he said.


source: the nation
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In Ayutthaya, livestock officials received reports at the weekend of a group of chickens dying en masse.

"We have buried the chickens and collected samples for lab tests," an official said.

[Buff-horns]

Six thought to have bird flu

Published on October 25, 2005

At least six people were suspected yesterday of having bird-flu - and all appear to have been in contact with birds before they fell ill, informed sources said. The first person to be listed was Thongpron Klompanya, 39, in Nakhon Pathom, after two initial lab tests suggested he might have caught the deadly H5N1 virus. He and his wife work on a farm where many ducks died on Sunday.

It was his job to feed the ducks. “He had a headache and doctors at the health centre suspected he might have caught the bird flu and referred to him a hospital,” Thongpron’s wife said yesterday.

Her husband was admitted to the hospital on Sunday night but got scared and sneaked home, prompting a search by livestock officials, police officers and hospital staff. Thongpron has been re-admitted to Nakhon Pathom provincial hospital, where doctors are awaiting the results of further tests.

In Kanchanaburi, a four-year-old girl was put under medical observation yesterday because she developed a fever after a pigeon dropped dead in her home without clear reason.

“Also, there are many fowls dying in her neighbourhood,” a doctor at Phahol Polphayuha-sena Hospital said. Two more suspected bird-flu cases are under observation at the hospital - a nine-year-old girl and a 48-year-old woman.

Meanwhile, a three-year-old girl and a 71-year-old woman were yesterday admitted to Kamphaeng Phet Hospital with possible bird-flu symptoms. Doctors said birds had died near both patients’ homes.

The Public Health Ministry says there were 19 confirmed bird-flu cases - and 13 deaths - between Dec 2003 and Sunday.

source: the nation

[Lesley]

What can one do to protect oneself from rabid chickens?

[baht&sold]

Lesley, on 2005-10-25 22:29:59, said:

What can one do to protect oneself from rabid chickens?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Close your eyes, hold your nose with your right index finger and thumb, hop on your left foot and repeatedly chant "please make the bad chickens go away"...

Seriously tho, not a damned thing actually. I wouldn't worry about it too much tho

There's only one superpower afterall- mother nature...
(minor players being cnn/abc/bbc/fox etc whipping some into a bubonic plague like frenzy).

Me? Not being insensitive, just aware of what I can and cannot control, so I'm off to KFC and generally getting on with life