March 8, 2004

 

Thai Government Urged To Increase Bird Flu Assistance

 

The House committee on consumer protection and a consumer group yesterday jointly urged the government to provide more financial assistance to the families of bird-flu victims.

 

The House committee's deputy chairman, Yongyos Adireksarn, said the Bt100,000 compensation from the Government Lottery Office (GLO) was too small, given the losses the families had to endure.

 

"The relevant authorities should provide more help," he said, adding that his committee would write to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the director of the GLO and Deputy Finance Minister Varathep Rattanakorn on the issue.

 

Viroj na Bangchang, president of a consumer-protection foundation, said the government should compensate the families of the victims fairly, even if it could not honour its Bt3million-compensation pledge.

 

The government has vowed to pay the huge compensation to the family of anyone who dies from eating well-cooked chicken or eggs. Medical experts have since pointed out that it would be very difficult to prove whether cooked chicken was the cause of an infection

 

"We are not going to fight for Bt3 million. We would just like to call for additional compensation for the victims," Viroj said.

 

Jongrak Bunmanut, the mother of a six-year-old boy who succumbed to avian influenza, accused the government of avoiding responsibility. She said her son would have been alive today had the government warned the public of the bird-flu outbreak earlier.

 

"And when my boy died, not one MP or minister paid any attention. No one came to offer help," she complained.

 

Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry yesterday added one more person and removed another from its list of suspected avian-flu infections.

 

A 16-month-old boy in Nakhon Ratchasima was added to the list of suspected bird-flu sufferers. He was first admitted to the province's Maharat Hospital on February 26, after suffering from a cough and fever symptoms since February 21.

 

Laboratory tests by the Medical Science Department confirmed a flu infection. Further tests will determine whether the virus belongs to the type infecting humans or birds. The boy was responding to treatment.

 

The boy was believed to have had contact with a flock of 20 neighbourhood chickens. Forty-five chickens in the area have died.

 

A 67-year-old woman from Chai Nat was removed from the list of suspected cases on Wednesday, the ministry said yesterday.