Bird Flu

[Old Hippie]

New Bird Flu Cases Found in Thailand

July 11, 2005 3:22 PM EDT

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand has discovered new cases of bird flu just as it was about to declare the country free of the disease, a livestock official said Monday.

 

Bird flu - avian influenza - has been found in fowl in villages in the central province of Suphanburi, 60 miles north of Bangkok, said Yukol Limlamthong, director-general of the Agriculture Ministry's Livestock Department.

 

"The disease was found in 10 fighting cocks in the five villages where an outbreak hit last year," he said.

 

Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan had planned to declare Thailand "bird flu-free" on Tuesday, 90 days after the last cases were discovered in another central province, Lopburi.

 

In order to boost confidence in its poultry industry, Thailand decided to use a 90- day waiting period after the last known finding of a bird flu case to declare the country free of the flu, even though internationally accepted standards allow 21 days.

 

Health experts have warned that the disease will be difficult to eradicate and is likely to re-emerge occasionally, possibly for years.

 

Hundreds of millions of birds died or were slaughtered across Asia in the last two years because of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has also jumped to humans, killing 51 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

 

Experts fear that if the virus mutates into a form that could be passed easily from person to person it could spark a global pandemic, killing millions.

 

Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob said he had ordered a ban on the movement of chickens within a six-mile radius of the new outbreak and expected to be able to contain the disease.

 

Barring new outbreaks, the declaration that Thailand is bird flu-free would be made in 21 days, rather than waiting for a 90-day period, he said.

[OCgringo]

there was a couple reports last week , the Phillipines said they had a case,

and there was a report that migrating birds might spread bird flu across asia,

 

it will be a long time to really get rid of it

[Old Hippie]

I have heard (Not RELIBLE SOURCE!!!!) That it cooks out of the chicken, but the danger was in handeling the birds and the waste...No concept of hazmat suits I guess...

[BuffHello]

EDITORIAL: Bird-flu menace looming large

Nation

Published on July 28, 2005

 

International efforts to contain the spread of this potential mass killer are only as good as the weakest link. It is premature to conclude from the three recent bird-flu deaths in Indonesia that the world will soon experience the long-dreaded global influenza pandemic. But the first human cases in a country outside mainland Southeast Asia ? when coupled with further incidents of chickens and wild birds dying in Thailand, China, Russia and elsewhere ? is enough to alarm scientists and health officials, because the virus seems to be continuing to spread and become more lethal.

 

Experts say the fact that migratory birds and ducks that were previously immune to the H5N1 virus have died in recent outbreaks is a very ominous sign, indicating the virus has indeed mutated. It also suggests that infection could spread more rapidly around the world, because birds can fly hundreds of miles in a day.

 

While all the warning signs point to the bad news that the world may be moving towards its first pandemic of the 21st century, Asian countries where the problem originated are not doing a very good job of being open and truthful about the threat. Scientists fear millions of people around the world will be killed if the virus mutates and mixes with human influenza, creating a deadly pandemic strain that could easily be passed from human to human.

 

Last week at a press conference confirming the country?s first H5N1-related deaths, the Indonesian health minister was quick to rule out any possibility of human-to-human transmission between the three deaths within the same family ? a father and two young daughters ? even before the results from clinical and epidemiological investigations became available. The minister simply noted that lab tests showed the virus was a conventional one, not new, and therefore there was no need to worry about human-to-human transmission.

 

But Thailand?s experience, with 17 people infected and 12 deaths, suggests otherwise. Thai experts observed that the epidemiological pattern of the Indonesian deaths might be similar to Thailand?s suspected case of daughter and mother transmission last year.

 

The mother, who worked in an urban area and had no known history of contact with chickens, became infected with H5N1 and died after nursing her sick daughter, who had bird flu. Initial reports from Indonesia indicate the disease may have passed from the eight-year-old daughter to her younger sister and father, a government official in Jakarta.

 

While it is too early to conclude what the first three deaths in Indonesia might tell us about the disease, it is important that official statements be supported by scientific facts and not merely consist of speculation designed to suppress panic. In this regard, sceptical eyes are turned towards China, which is doing the worst of all the governments in coming clean with its avian-flu situation.

 

Despite reports that thousands of migratory birds were recently discovered dead in China and unofficial Internet reports of 120 related human fatalities, Beijing continues flatly to deny the reports. But such a denial could be fatal given the historical record, which shows that last century?s three major influenza pandemics originated in China.

 

It is encouraging that international organisations that had been relatively muted about China are becoming more vocal. The United Nations recently criticised the Chinese government for withholding vital information that would be useful in fighting the virus like it did in the Sars outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week told the world community that it is pressing China to allow international laboratories to examine specimens from birds in Qinghai, where the H5N1 virus has killed more than 5,000 birds from five species.

 

WHO officials stress that this virus is highly unpredictable and versatile, able to change at any time. It is highly dangerous. But the WHO has not received from China requested information or virus samples from the infected birds.

 

Despite 100 million human deaths from flu pandemics in the last century, it is only now that science can hear early warnings from nature. The question is, will countries, especially China, with its ambition to become a world leader in the 21st century, listen?

[Flashermac]

<< Hundreds of millions of birds died or were slaughtered across Asia in the last two years because of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has also jumped to humans, killing 51 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. >>

 

 

The proper communist response would be to perform a cull of chicken farmers. Worked for Stalin and Mao. (Let's hope Mr T doesn't think of it!)

[thalenoi]

Seems chicken farms around Chumpon made "suicide", some torn down concrete is all that's left.

[Mentors]

In the South? That's are bad news

[Guest]

Pandemics are just nature's way of cleaning out the deadwood.

[Flashermac]

A student of mine two years ago came to class furious. It was when Thaksin was ordering mass poultry slaughters in certain provinces. He had inherited a chicken farm from his grandfather and ran it very scientifically, he claimed. He had strict isolation practices and was raising those black chickens Chinese like for export. He had never had a single sick bird on his farm. But Mr T ordered a slaughter of all birds within a certain so-many-kilometer radius, and they had come a buried alive the students' entire stock. Apparently no financial compensation either. He was cursing the PM up one side and down the other. That chicken farm was paying for the kid's university education. Suddenly, no money ...