January 25, 2005

 

 

Thailand to step up bird flu monitoring with detailed plan

 

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang revealed today that details have been worked out for a comprehensive plan to prevent a major outbreak of bird flu after a resurgence of the deadly disease in Vietnam, where nine people have died of the virus in the last three weeks.

 

The plan will be submitted to the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

 

The deputy prime minister yesterday chaired a meeting of the government's bird flu disease committee. He revealed that the focus of the proposed 776-million-baht plan was in dealing with possible human-to-human transmissions of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

 

An estimated 776 million baht of funds are needed to carry out this comprehensive plan, which includes programs to educate people, produce anti-virus medicines, embark on local vaccine research and improve facilities at hospitals. This sum would cover expenses for three years, with 287 million baht to be spent this year.

 

Also, a group of health experts would be sent to Vietnam in the next few days to discuss possible assistance in aiding their neighbour's fight against the outbreak.

 

"If the plan gets the cabinet green light, we will go ahead with all the necessary measures," Mr. Chaturon said. 

Bird flu, he said knew no boundaries and if the situation was deteriorating, "Thailand would be adversely affected as the deadly virus is still found in Thai and Vietnamese poultry."

 

The three-year plan includes several immediate and long-term measures, including the distribution of facemasks and a free booklet detailing preventive action, , the deputy prime minister said.

 

Yesterday's bird flu committee meeting also agreed that another round of checks would be implemented in every province next month to ensure that any possible new case was dealt with immediately.

 

The H5N1 poultry virus is known to have killed 27 people in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand over the past year.

 

Mr. Yukol Limlamgthong, Director-General of the Department of Livestock Development, said yesterday that the department was keeping close tabs on the movement of livestock, particularly in the central, eastern and upper northern regions of the country.

 

Officials from his department will be on the look-out for reports of ill and dead animals, while no effort will be spared in ensuring stricter poultry transport regulations and farms sterilisations. His department, together with poultry-related operators, will issue ``safe-chicken'' stickers for the Chinese New Year period, when consumers normally purchase large numbers of live poultry.

 

He also confirmed that the government had sent samples of the Thai avian flu virus to laboratories abroad in order to determine whether or not there was an existing vaccine which could be used in the case of a severe outbreak of the disease.

 

The use of a vaccine has provoked fierce controversy in Thailand, not least because a number of principle importers of Thai chicken products have indicated that they could ban imports if a vaccine is used, citing the risk of residue contamination.

 

The dispute was highlighted when Assoc. Prof. Songkhram Luenthongkhak, the head of the Medical Council and the chair of the council's bird flu study committee, handed in his letter of resignation in opposition to plans to introduce a vaccine in Thailand.

 

Opposition is also thick from the Association of Chicken Farmers, whose president, Mrs. Chaweewan Khampha, warned that the economic damage caused by the introduction of a vaccine could surpass that caused by last month's tsunamis.

 

Noting that controlling the use of a vaccine would be difficult, she said that neither domestic, nor foreign consumers were happy with the idea of eating chicken products pumped with the vaccine.

 

Most importantly, she said, the issue was opposed by 95 percent of scientists, who felt the vaccine to be extremely dangerous in terms of its impact on export revenue and employment.

 

One chicken farmer, Mr. Manop Saengwattankul, told reporters that the long-term impact of the vaccine on consumers had yet to be determined. 

 

Expressing his extreme discomfort with the idea of a vaccine, he said that Thailand already had the most effective avian flu control measures in the world.