February 5, 2004

 

 

Asia Reports 15 Bird Flu Deaths To Date

 

The bird flu death toll has risen to 15 as of Wednesday, with the situation in China being most precarious.

 

Vietnam said a 17-year-old woman had died of the disease and Thailand said tests confirmed a six-year-old boy who died earlier in the week had been infected with the H5N1 virus.

 

The H5N1 bug, which could cross the species barrier, was spreading despite a mass slaughter of poultry the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates at 50 million birds.

 

Guangdong, the southern Chinese province from which the SARS virus emerged before affecting 30 countries last year and killing nearly 800 people, has the H5N1 avian virus.

 

Now 12 of China's 31 provinces confirm or suspect outbreaks bird flu. The disease was confirmed in 53 of Vietnam's 64 provinces.

 

China has yet to report any human infections, unlike badly hit Thailand with 17 suspected cases as well as five confirmed and two probable deaths from the disease.

 

Most of the deaths have been attributed to direct contact with infected fowl, like a Thai boy who was present when his grandfather, now in hospital, killed chickens.

 

But Guangdong, where people live cheek by jowl with poultry and other farm animals, is widely regarded as a breeding ground for viruses which could cause a human pandemic.

 

That is seen as a remote threat and the World Health Organization said the possibility two Vietnamese sisters had got bird flu from their brother did not mean a pandemic was nearer.

 

Even so WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said: "We are looking at a very serious situation...At the moment, we are losing more than we are winning."