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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24: Another two people were admitted to
hospital with symptoms of bird flu, as the authorities geared
for a massive exercise to check all households within a 10km
radius of the villages where chickens have died of bird flu.
The two admitted to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital’s isolation ward
were a 10-year-old child, and a 42-year-old man from Taman Danau
Kota and Kampung Belakang JPJ.
Two of the nine people who had been warded since Tuesday remain
in hospital. The others have been discharged.
The four would be allowed to go home if they test negative
tomorrow, said Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
 SAFE:
A father leaving the HKL emergency room with his daughter, who
is believed to have tested negative for bird flu.
Dr Chua said the situation was under control.
"There have been no confirmed cases of the disease among
people," he added.
Until yesterday, health officials had conducted checks on 226
homes, with 1,149 people, in Taman Danau Kota and Kampung
Belakang JPJ areas.
Dr Chua was speaking to reporters after launching Nutren
Balance, Nestle’s latest product for diabetics, at the KL Hilton
today.
Meanwhile, acting Veterinary Services Department
director-general Datuk Dr Mustapa Jalil said an exercise to
check for chickens which had died suddenly would begin tomorrow
within a 10km radius of Kampung Pasir Wardieburn. |
So far, the house-to-house checks have been restricted to a 1km
radius of Kampung Pasir Wardieburn, where more than 80 chickens
were found to have died of the H5N1 virus over the past 10 days.
More than 3,000 officers from the Veterinary Services
Department, staff and students of the Veterinary Medical Faculty
and Universiti Putra Malaysia, officials and workers from Kuala
Lumpur City Hall and police will be involved in the operation.
The officers will go house-to-house to find out if any chickens
or ducks had died suddenly over the past few days.
Dr Mustapa said their general surveillance of chicken and bird
farms and kampung chickens elsewhere in the country showed that
none was infected with the H5N1 virus.
"Although the outbreak here is an isolated case, we will
continue with our nationwide surveillance and checks," he added.
Samples taken from birds and chickens in and around Selayang,
Batu Caves and Hulu Kelang have shown that they are free of the
H5N1 virus.
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