January 27, 2004

Laos Confirms Bird Flu Outbreak

Laos has been confirmed the ninth Asian country to be hit by the deadly bird flu virus, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said Tuesday.

"We sent samples to Hanoi for testing and we have received the result that it is H5, but we don't know the strain," the official said.

The official said there was no evidence that bird flu had jumped to humans in Laos, which borders Thailand and Vietnam where millions of chickens have been slaughtered to stamp out a disease that has killed eight people.

Both Thailand and Vietnam have the H5N1 virus, which can jump to humans. The milder H5N2 strain cannot.

The Lao official said 3,500 chickens had died mysteriously in Vientiane province, the region around the capital, since January 14.

"We have destroyed around 400 remaining chickens as a result of the test," the official said.

Health experts say Communist-run Laos, one of the poorest countries in the world, it would be especially worrying if the bird flu leapt into humans in Laos because of its "very poor public health infrastructure."

"We worry in particular so if the virus became embedded in Laos, we'll have very serious problems," World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingley said Monday.