Nong Khai bird-flu fear

[dirtydog]

Officials slaughter chickens in Nong Khai following bird-flu fear


Nong Khai - Officials slaughtered 2,000 chickens in this northeastern province Sunday following a report that about 200 chickens fell ill and died.

Surveillance has been stepped up, particularly in Si Chiang Mai district.

The Nation

[dirtydog]

Second bird flu outbreak


Local livestock officials Tuesday confirmed the country's second outbreak of bird flu this year, saying they had detected the deadly H5N1 virus among chickens in the country's northeast.

The results of laboratory tests confirmed that it's the H5N1 virus, found in 200 chickens raised for their eggs, in Nong Khai last week, livestock department official said.

The first bird flu outbreak report of this year was on January 15 when authorities found the H5N1 virus in ducks in Phitsanulok.

- The Nation

[dirtydog]

Second birdflu outbreak in Nong Khai


A fresh H5N1 birdflu outbreak has been found in hens in the far northeast province of Nong Khai, Livestock Development Department directorgeneral Pirom Srichan said Tuesday.



Some 236 egg hens died on a chicken farm in Sri Chiang Mai district last Saturday, which prompted local officials to cull the remaining 1,764 hens at the farm, plus 96 fowls "nearby".

Laboratory test results on samples from the Nong Khai hens confirmed yesterday that they had the birdflu virus, Pirom said.

Officials then set up 24hour checkpoints to strictly prevent poultry being illegally shifted out of the area, and searches were undertaken for more infections - both in humans and birds - within a fivekilometre radius, he said.

Pirom said officials had so far found two outbreaks - the outbreak in Nong Khai and another at Phitsanulok's Muang district on January 15.

Meanwhile, Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin said birdfluwatch committees were assigned to check 15 "risky" districts - which either had an H5N1 outbreak previously or many poultry farms.

He said city officials would hold a meeting on Friday with 58 slaughterhouses to ensure killing of chickens and other birds is being conducted in a clean and proper manner.

Public Health permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot, meanwhile, said no human birdflu case had been reported since this year's outbreaks. Of 126 suspected patients, all were cleared but for 13 people who have results pending.

Some 17 people - all of who had contact with sick birds - have died of bird flu in Thailand since the epidemic was first detected here in 2003.

Disease Control Department head Dr Thawat Suntrajarn said he would announce redzone disaster areas, which are subject to tough measures, if bird flu outbreaks were detected in more areas.

LtGen Mongkol Jivasantikarn, head of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), said a clinical trial by Siriraj Hospital of the new GPO A Flu drug on 30 patients had shown a good result. The drug had shown the same bioequivalence quality as the imported antiinfluenza antiviral oseltamivir.

He said the GPO would submit the results when it registers the drug with the Food and Drug Administration, which should be completed in 15 days.

Mongkol said the GPO had enough raw materials to produce up to 800,000 tablets, and could produce up to 400,000 tablets of the drug a day, but production depended a decision by the Disease Control Department on how many tablets were needed. The drug was valid for use for up two years, so there was no need to produce too much, as the materials could kept for future need, he said.

The Nation

[dirtydog]

Nong Khai man died of H3N2, not H5N1 : Health Ministry


A Nong Khai man, feared to have been the latest victim of bird flu virus, died instead of a strain of human influenza, the Public Health Ministry said Thursday.

Apichart Phrombutr, a 41-year-old resident of Si Chiang Mai district - where the latest outbreak of bird flu was confirmed last week - died from the H3N2 strain of human flu, not the H5N1 strain of bird flu, said Dr Paijit Warachit, head of the Department of Medical Science.


Apichart died on Monday, just two days after falling ill with bird-flu-like symptoms. His death sparked public fears and a wideฌspread rumour that bird flu had claimed another Thai. Some 17 people have died of the disease in Thailand since it was first detected here in 2003.

But Paijit said Apichart's home was a long way from the poultry farm where the latest bird flu outbreak was detected.

He said there had been another case of someone dying from the H3N2 virus recently - a five-year-old girl in Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

Health officials are investigating the two deaths to determine why the virus was so deadly, he said.

Paijit said the chief of the Department of Disease Control, Dr Thawat Suntrajarn, agreed it was necessary to investigate the two deaths.

Thawat described the inquiry as extraordinary. Health officials needed to find out why the strain of human flu had been fatal and how to improve treatment for influenza, he said.

"What I am really wondering is whether or not it's time to inocuฌlate all highrisk groups, such as the elderly and young children," he said.

Thailand lacks an adequate supply of vaccines for seasonal illnesses, he said, adding that the vaccines were imported.

The ministry is calling for a plant to be built to produce seasonal vaccines here, he said.

Meanwhile, a senior official at the Health Service Support Department said public health volunteers across the country had been instructed to increase monitoring for human cases of bird flu for the next two months.

The Nation

[dirtydog]

Don't panic about new flu - ministry


Authorities yesterday sought to calm public fears over an apparently more virulent form of human influenza, which has already claimed three lives this year.



"Please don't rush to seek vaccinations against human influenza. Healthy people don't need vaccines, which should only be used for people in risk groups such as health professionals who have to take close care of patients, disease-control officials or livestock officials," said Dr Kamnuan Ungchusak, who heads the Public Health Ministry's Bureau of Epidemiology.

Ministry spokesman Dr Suphan Srithamma said the three patients who succumbed to influenza this year were a 41-year-old man, a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old girl.

Suphan said children, the elderly and ailing people would be among the risk groups when it came to the human-flu threat.

Medical Sciences Department director general Dr Paijit Warachit said that although primary checks had showed human influenza was spreading in some provinces and had not mutated into another strain of human flu, a detailed lab test was continuing.

The Bureau of Epidemiology said human influenza was now spreading in Bangkok, Nong Khai, Angthong and Prachuap Kiri Khan. About 160 people have caught the flu this month.

Last year, 16,309 people came down with influenza. Two of them died.

Meanwhile, agencies are stepping up measures against bird flu.

In Tak, the provincial public health office covered its compound with nets to prevent wild birds from getting in. Security guards also made banging sounds to scare the birds away.

"These measures help reduce bird-flu risks. Besides, they make the compound clean and easier to maintain," said Tak public health office chief Dr Pajjuban Hemhongsa.

In Uttaradit, provincial livestock chief Panom Meesiriphan said his authority was closely monitoring more than one million chickens and ducks in Muang, Laplae, Phichai and Tron districts where bird-flu infections were detected last year.
"So far, we haven't detected any bird-flu infection in our province this year," he said.

The Nation