January 15, 2004

Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia Bans Bird Flu Hit Countries

Hong Kong, Thailand and Cambodia have also banned poultry imports from countries affected by bird flu, a potentially fatal disease which can jump from poultry to humans.

Vietnamese health authorities are investigating 18 suspected cases of bird flu in humans, including 12 deaths, the largest outbreak of the disease in Asia this year.

The latest outbreaks in Asia have killed millions of chickens in South Korea, Vietnam and Japan, where officials have ordered mass culls to try to contain the disease.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu killed six people in Hong Kong in 1997, when more than a million chickens and ducks were culled.

The World Health Organization has described the bird flu outbreak as a potentially bigger problem than SARS, a similarly fatal respiratory infection which emerged from southern China in November 2002.

Asia's latest bird flu scare coincides with the identification of new severe acute respiratory syndrome cases in China.