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Thailand
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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand awaited test results on another suspected bird flu case on Friday after a resurgence of the killer virus in Asia, although Indonesian fears the H5N1 strain was mutating eased as a father and son proved negative. A day after lab analysis confirmed a 48-year-old man as Thailand's 13th victim, doctors said it was highly likely his sick 7-year-old son also had the virus, which has spread steadily from Asia to Europe in under two years. Bird flu, which experts fear could mutate into a form that jumps easily from person to person and unleash a global pandemic, has killed over 60 people in four Asian countries during this period. "There is a high possibility he (the victim) caught the bird flu virus because he had direct contact with the infected chicken," Disease Control Department chief Thawat Suntarajarn told Reuters. "But the tests showed negative because he was given Tamiflu right away after he had symptoms," he said, referring to Roche AG's anti-flu drug which has been shown to reduce H5N1 symptoms. |
Under pressure to increase worldwide production of Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant agreed on Thursday to meet four generic drug makers with a view to potential tie-ups. In Jakarta, local tests on a hospitalized father and son proved negative for bird flu, a senior Health Ministry official said, calming fears prompted by the health minister that H5N1 might be spreading from human to human. Reacting quickly to calm any panic, the World Health Organization told Reuters such a scenario -- even if it had been true -- did not mean the virus was mutating into a form that jumps easily between people. "It doesn't mean mutation," Georg Petersen, WHO's Indonesia representative, told Reuters. All human deaths from avian flu have so far been in Asia but the H5N1 strain was detected this month in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania. Further tests are being carried out in Europe on a bird from Greece. "VERY GRAVE" WINTER LOOMS Even as it marches |
westwards, tracking the flight paths of migratory birds, the virus is flaring up again in east and southeast Asia, the most likely epicenter of a human pandemic, according to the WHO. Vietnam, the worst-hit country, has started culling birds again in the Mekong Delta after detecting its first cases in poultry since July. The WHO says 61 people have now died of bird flu since it resurfaced in 2003 after a brief outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 -- 41 in Vietnam, 13 in Thailand, four in Cambodia and three in Indonesia. Six people died in the Hong Kong outbreak. With the looming of winter -- the season when the virus seems to thrive -- China vowed to do its utmost to stop the virus spreading to people shortly after a new outbreak was reported at a poultry farm north of Beijing. "China is prone to bird flu outbreaks in autumn and winter. The situation is very grave," state radio quoted Vice Premier Liangyu Hui as saying on Thursday. Xinhua news agency said he was passing instructions straight from President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. |
In Brussels, the European Union adopted fresh measures to fight the virus, banning live birds from markets or exhibitions without permission and urging states to keep wild flocks away from poultry feed. The European Commission said a committee of EU veterinary experts had agreed on the measures, which included vaccinating birds in zoos and extending a ban on bird and feather imports to cover much of Russia. Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said member states had drawn up plans to deal with a possible pandemic and arrange stockpiles or orders for antiviral drugs, but said the risk to the general public was low. "The appearance of flu in birds in Europe does not increase the risk of a pandemic," he told a news conference after an informal meeting of EU health ministers near London. France and Italy tried to reassure consumers it was safe to eat poultry because imports from affected areas were banned, while Germany ordered poultry to be kept in pens and Poland said domestic fowl must be kept indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds. |
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