October 24, 2005

Thailand confirms another potential bird flu human case
 

Tests on an ailing seven-year-old Thai boy whose father died of bird flu have confirmed that he also has the deadly virus, Thai medical authorities said Friday.

On Thursday, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced that a villager in the western Thai province of Kanchanaburi had died of bird flu. Initial tests had failed to confirm the disease, but samples analyzed after the man's death on Sunday confirmed that he had the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus.

He was Thailand's 13th fatality from the disease and the first in more than a year.

Initial tests of his son, hospitalised with pneumonia-like symptoms, also failed to confirm the presence of H5N1, but new tests found the virus, said Prasit Watanapa, director of Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, where the boy is being treated.