November 20, 2007

 

Thailand fears possible bird flu outbreak

 

 

Thailand's Public Health Ministry expressed concerns on possible bird flu outbreak as winter season approaches.

 

Around 800,000 health volunteers were assigned to monitor sick people and poultry throughout the country.

 

Thailand Permanent Secretary Prat Boonyawongvirot urged volunteers to inform health officials immediately if any poultry perished.  Children were advised to stay away from chickens or birds that fell ill or died under inexplicable circumstances.

 

Mass deaths of fighting cocks in Nong-pangpuay village of Kaoliew district were recently reported. Their symptoms were said to be similar to bird flu.

 

Meanwhile, Dr Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general of the Disease Control Department, said the Bureau of Epidemiology monitored 2,036 patients suffering from general flu and pneumonia admitted to hospitals across country. As of Thursday, no bird flu cases were reported in these patients.

 

Suntrajam added that the ministry has not received any news of bird-flu infections in humans for the past 14 months.

 

According to the World Health Organisation, bird flu virus has struck people in seven countries this year - Cambodia, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Nigeria and Vietnam.

 

WHO reported that 72 patients had come down with bird flu and 48 of them died.

 

The highest rate of mortality was in Indonesia, where 38 people caught the virus and 33 died. Egypt was second with 20 cases, of which five were fatal.

 

Prat assured that the ministry had equipped district and provincial hospitals with sterile rooms to treat bird flu patients.