Guest Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 One more (imo) interesting story on this subject: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/22/1074732530031.html WHO warns of mutating bird flu January 22, 2004 - 5:12PM Hanoi: The World Health Organisation said today it was concerned the H5N1 strain of bird flu was spreading across Asia and providing "mounting opportunities" for the virus to change into a far more lethal form. The UN health agency's warning followed claims by a Thai politician that a seven-year-old boy in Thailand had contracted the potentially fatal disease and that two other people were being tested for infection. "The spread of the virus is so wide across such a large part of Asia that we see there is a reason for growing concern," Bob Dietz, the WHO's spokesman in Vietnam, told AFP. "The more widespread it becomes the more chance there is that it could alter its form." At least five people have died from the H5N1 virus in Vietnam, while 17 others suspected of contracting it remain hospitalised. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are also battling their own bird flu outbreaks but have not reported any cases of human infection. The WHO says the five victims in Vietnam were infected after coming into contact with droppings from sick birds. But Dietz warned that human-to-human transmission was "a possible next step" if the virus keeps spreading. "It is impossible to predict a time or date for this but there are mounting opportunities for the virus to alter its form and begin affecting the human population," he said. The WHO has warned that the world could face another influenza pandemic if H5N1 swaps genes with a common flu virus, creating a lethal pathogen that could spread around the globe within months. An estimated 50 million people died from the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. This was followed by pandemics in 1957-1958 and 1968-1969. Another is considered inevitable and possibly imminent. Only the swift culling of 1.4 million birds in Hong Kong during an outbreak of H5N1 there in 1997 that killed six people averted a global health crisis, according to the UN agency. Meanwhile, Thai senator Nirun Phitakwatchara accused the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of covering up an outbreak of bird flu in order to protect its chicken industry, which is Asia's largest. He urged the government to come clean with the public and admit that the outbreak of "fowl cholera and bronchitis" it is fighting, which has left one million chickens dead or culled, is in fact avian influenza. "All the academics and experts have had to shut up due to political interference. As a matter of fact they realised that the outbreak had occurred since last November," he told AFP. The senator said the infected boy was in a serious condition in hospital. The second patient, a chicken butcher, needed further testing. He said he had no information on the third suspected sufferer. Thaksin, however, denied a cover-up, and said it would take several days to confirm the status of the suspected cases. China, which is considered a hotbed of viruses, has yet to report any outbreak of bird flu, triggering fears that it might be hiding cases as it did during last year's SARS crisis. These were heightened after Hong Kong announced yesterday that a wild falcon found dead near a chicken farm had tested positive for H5N1. The WHO has pressed Beijing for more information and warned that bird flu could be even more destructive than SARS, which killed 349 people in China out of nearly 800 people worldwide. Disease control experts say that failure to tackle bird flu in its infancy could allow the virus to spread though chicken populations, altering its genetic make-up along the way and possibly becoming more pathogenic. Vietnam reportedly suffered a bird flu outbreak in the northern province of Vinh Phuc in July last year that was covered up by the government. AFP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 This is one paragraph from a report a couple of days old from the UK Health Protection Agency.. 'WHO remains concerned, however, that the simultaneous occurrence of large and fatal outbreaks in birds in south east Asia may indicate that influenza A H5N1 is becoming established in birds in this part of the world. Widespread epidemics in birds increase opportunities for human exposure, which in turn increases the opportunities for the avian and human strains of influenza virus to exchange genetic material. If a new virus subtype emerges as a result, and if that virus proves capable of spreading easily and sustainably from person-to-person, the conditions for the start of an influenza pandemic would have been met.' JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 so after the first confirmed deaths from bird flu, things will now heaten up; this will have a big impact on Thailand's food industry and probably as well on the tourism industry, 2 key industries for Thailand's economy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loner w/a boner Posted January 25, 2004 Report Share Posted January 25, 2004 This is scary. I'm no environmentalist-type, BUT...it sounds like some of the dire predictions made in decades past might actually be happening. I've always been more worried about eating fish--high mercury, sores from pollution, etc...now various pathogens may be successfully spreading through our food supply. Seem to recall they made a few sci-fi "B" movies about this kind of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 It seems, the infection is still on the rise. According to today's Bangkok Post, the infection now also spreads to Indonesia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bkkbound04 Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 Add Pakistan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted January 26, 2004 Report Share Posted January 26, 2004 Hi Thailand''s economy just does not need this. Hope the all clear is given soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 .. and Laos as well. Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 Oh Oh, seems to become a bigger problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted January 27, 2004 Report Share Posted January 27, 2004 Peter, Yep, huge problem due to - usual - underestimation of governments...... According to CNN, the Thai government is now admitting that 5 suspected deaths of last week probably died of chicken flu as well...... Better stick to the chicks now ! Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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