February 23, 2006

Malaysia on the hunt for diseased birds

Two children remained in hospital Thursday pending tests for bird flu as hundreds of veterinary officials and students prepared to fan out in Malaysia's main city to look for diseased birds.

Four other children and two adults who were also hospitalized Tuesday as a precautionary measure have been declared free of bird flu, leaving 2 children still in the special isolation ward of a Kuala Lumpur hospital, a Health Ministry official said.

Malaysia was gripped with bird flu concern after 40 chickens were confirmed on Monday to have died last week of the H5N1 virus in four villages just outside Kuala Lumpur.

Since then, 835 poultry and birds have been destroyed within a 1 km radius from the villages. Also, health officials are conducting house-to-house searches to check for human infections.

On Thursday, the search for diseased birds was expanded to a 10 km radius, encompassing Kuala Lumpur's posh neighborhoods of Bangsar and Sri Hartamas, and the city center area, including the Petronas Twin Towers.

Although highly urbanized and wealthy, Kuala Lumpur has pockets of low-income housing areas such as Kampung Baru where people keep a few chickens for their daily needs. The neighborhood is about 1 kilometre from the Petronas Twin Towers.

Veterinary officials, veterinary students and government staff will visit such areas to take random samples of birds and swabs, said Noraini Kanis, a spokeswoman for the Veterinary Services Department.

Malaysia declared itself free of bird flu in January 2005. The virus was first detected in villages in the north-eastern Kelantan state in August 2004 in fighting cocks smuggled from neighbouring Thailand. No humans were infected.