Thailand confirms first bird flu death
A six-year-old Thai boy became Asia’s seventh confirmed bird flu fatality as Pakistan joined a list of affected countries today.
The World Health Organisation pleaded with the global scientific community to accelerate the search for a cure.
Attempts to tackle the virus are being frustrated by its fast rate of mutation as well as its rapid spread across at least eight countries.
Pakistan said it had detected a form of bird flu in its chicken population. Laos fears it might also be hit and is awaiting test results on the nature of an illness killing its fowl, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said.
Other Asian governments frantically culled chicken flocks in a desperate bid to contain the disease, as well as the growing political fallout from accusations that officials in two countries – Thailand and Indonesia – initially covered up outbreaks.
Officials in Bangkok said they were investigating whether the virus might be being carried by migratory birds.
The Thai boy became infected after he played with chickens in his village. He died last night in a Bangkok hospital, Thailand’s first confirmed death from the virus.
Six people have died in neighbouring Vietnam and Thai officials are trying to determine whether bird flu was also the cause of last week’s death of a 56-year-old man who had bred fighting cocks.
The WHO said a search for a cure had been set back because the virus had mutated. A previous strain detected in Hong Kong in 1997 can no longer be used as the key to producing a vaccine. It said an international effort was needed.
Scientists believe people get the disease through contact with sick birds.
Although there has been no evidence yet of human-to-human transmission, health officials are concerned it might mutate further and link with regular influenza to create a form that could be transmitted from person to person, triggering the next human flu pandemic.
“This is now spreading too quickly for anybody to ignore it,” said WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley in Manila.
So far seven countries have reported bird flu – Thailand, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are also affected and Indonesia admitted it had a problem on Sunday.
Indonesian officials had earlier denied the disease’s presence, but the country’s veterinarian association said independent investigations had revealed that bird flu had killed millions of chickens over recent months.
The Jakarta Post reported today that Indonesian officials may have covered up the outbreak there at the behest of politically connected businessmen who feared it would harm their interests.
Indonesian officials denied the allegations.
“It’s not true. We have zero tolerance for pressure from businessmen. We are talking about the lives of people,” Agriculture Department spokesman Hari Priyono said.
The Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, faced similar allegations that he covered up his country’s outbreak.
Thaksin has said that his government had suspected “a couple of weeks” ago that bird flu had struck his nation but that he didn’t tell the public because he feared mass panic.
Thailand has exterminated nine million chickens so far. Hundreds of soldiers and some prison inmates have been enlisted help with the cull after some poultry workers refused because of exposure fears.
The outbreak has devastated Thailand’s chicken export industry – the world’s fourth largest.
Thailand shipped about 500,000 tons of chicken worth more than €1bn last year.
