AFP Photo
Passengers
arriving from Istanbul walk by a
sign informing about the bird flu,
in the terminal A of the Nice Cote
D'Azur Airport. Thailand reported
its first human fatality from bird
flu in a year as the world mobilized
against a virulent strain of the
virus still breaking out in Asia as
it advances into Europe and menaces
Africa.
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PARIS (AFP) -
Thailand reported its first human fatality from bird flu in a
year as the world mobilized against a virulent strain of the
virus still breaking out in Asia as it advances into Europe and
menaces Africa.
A 48-year-old Thai farmer, who slaughtered and then ate a sick
chicken, was the country's 13th bird flu victim.
A strain of avian influenza virus known as H5N1 has killed 60
people in Asia since 2003, and experts fear it might adapt or
mutate to become easily transmissible between humans,
potentially leading to a catastrophic pandemic.
"The risk of pandemic influenza is serious," according to the
World Health Organization (WHO). "With the H5N1 virus now firmly
entrenched in large parts of Asia, the risk that more human
cases will occur will persist," the WHO says on its website.
"Each additional human case gives the virus an opportunity to
improve its transmissibility in humans, and thus develop into a
pandemic strain... "While neither the timing nor the severity of
the next pandemic can be predicted, the probability that a
pandemic will occur has increased," the organization added.
Thailand slaughtered poultry around the outbreak and the dead
farmer's seven-year-old son was being checked for the virus at a
Bangkok hospital.
In Europe, a preliminary test by a British laboratory showed no
evidence of bird flu in a suspect turkey sent by Greece,
offering some comfort for a continent alarmed by the virus's
advance into the European part of Russia as well as Romania and
Turkey.
But the
European Commission said it could not yet rule out the presence
of bird flu in Greece. Also Thursday, the Commission formally
banned imports of pet birds and feathers from nearly all Russian
territory in an emergency procedure, after an outbreak of lethal
bird flu south of Moscow. |
And Ukraine's
parliament slapped a six-month ban on imports of poultry and
their derivatives following the discovery of the H5N1 strain in
neighboring Russia and Romania.
Meanwhile, EU
health ministers meeting near London agreed on the need for a
continental stockpile of vaccines. "We must build up stocks to
be able to intervene in countries which don't have sufficient
stocks of their own, and to intervene outside the EU's borders,"
French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand told reporters.
A formal decision on this issue is likely to come at the next
official EU health ministers' meeting, scheduled for December
8-9 in Brussels.
In a joint
press statement, ministers also stressed the "critical nature"
of giving Europeans clear and objective information "to reduce
the likelihood of confusing messages".
"It is important to distinguish between avian flu, normal
seasonal flu and pandemic flu," they said.
In Romania, which is hoping to join the European Union in 2007,
authorities said tests have confirmed the presence of new cases
of H5N1, after it was provisionally detected at the weekend.
Migratory birds may next take the virus to Africa, the
Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said this week,
warning that the zone would be an "ideal breeding ground for the
virus" because of close contact between people and animals.
Scientists have said that the east African Rift Valley countries
of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, along with Uganda, are
particularly threatened as they host millions of migratory fowl
that fly to warmer climes during the European winter.
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Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda put veterinary experts on high alert and
imposed new bans or strengthened existing restrictions on
poultry and wild bird imports. to humans.
Experts have
warned that poverty-stricken African nations whose populations
are already at risk from hunger and vulnerable immune systems
could be overwhelmed if the virus appears and jumps
Nigeria said
it had sent vets to its northern wetlands to inspect migrating
birds for signs of H5N1.
Pamphlets have been prepared to warn farmers of the danger,
poultry imports from infected countries will be banned and
quarantine rules are set to be stiffened.
Fear gripped
many people, particularly in Europe. A union representing Greek
meat sellers said sales of poultry had plummeted 60 to 70
percent since Monday due to the bird flu crisis.
In France, a national federation of supermarket chains said
sales of poultry had dropped 20 percent in the past five days.
Albanian television said about 3,600 chickens imported from
Greece had been buried alive -- thrown into a pit and covered by
earth with a bulldozer without any disinfection process -- on
the Albanian side of the border because of bird flu fears.
Several countries reported progress in the search for a vaccine
against the bird flu virus H5N1. But it is not known whether
vaccines against H5N1 will offer any protection if the virus
mutates. |
