7 hospitalized in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR -- Seven people were hospitalized in Malaysia with flu-like symptoms after a new outbreak of bird flu prompted the slaughter of nearly 500 birds and an alert extending to downtown Kuala Lumpur, the health minister said Wednesday.

Five children between two months and 12 years, and two adults in their 50s were hospitalized on Tuesday with upper respiratory tract infections, Health Minister Chua Soi Lek told reporters.

They were identified during house-to-house checks on Tuesday in four hamlets outside Kuala Lumpur where 40 chickens were confirmed to have died last week of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Chua said it was unlikely the five people had contracted bird flu, but were admitted as a precaution.

"We are admitting them for investigation just to be on the careful side because later on if it turns out to be true we don't want them to have been walking around town," he said.

Test results will be known later Wednesday, or Thursday, he said.

"They are in stable condition and they have been put in a ward that is specially prepared for these type of cases," he said.

Chua said 11 health department teams will continue house-to-house check for the next seven days. A total of 161 houses were inspected and 916 people screened on Tuesday, he said.

During the house-to-house checks, government officials seized and later destroyed nearly 500 chickens, birds and ducks, and more than 230 eggs, said Kamaruddin Mohamad Isa, the director for disease control in the Veterinary Services Department.

He said the department has also declared a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius observation zone around the four villages, encompassing Kuala Lumpur's up-market neighborhoods of Bangsar and Sri Hartamas, and the city center area, including the Petronas Twin Towers.

"Last night we almost finished killing all the birds and chickens in the affected area," Kamaruddin told The Associated Press. "It won't reach Bangsar or the other outer places."

Although highly urbanized and wealthy, Kuala Lumpur has pockets of low-income housing areas such as Kampung Baru, about 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the Petronas Twin Towers, where people keep a few chickens for their daily needs.

The New Straits Times newspaper cited anonymous sources from the Health Department as saying authorities suspect the bird flu had likely originated from fighting cockerels in the villages.

"The cockerels may have been brought here by foreign workers who organized illegal cock fights," the source was quoted as saying.

Malaysia declared itself free of bird flu in January 2005, which was first detected in villages in the northeastern Kelantan state in August 2004 in fighting cocks smuggled from neighboring Thailand. No humans were infected.

The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

February 22, 2006

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/international/news/20060222p2g 00m0in022000c.html

Nikita wrote: I read yesterday it is back in Malaysia - this is where a lot of co-workers travel to.  Hopefully Intel will put in travel restrictions... It's good to hear they are taking this seriously and using quarantine measures to control the spread, even though it sounds like they are certain these individuals just have the regular flu.  Now Africa....different story.  I find it hard to believe there are no humans infected, especially with the continued slaughter and sale of likely infected chickens.  I believe this is where the virus will have free reign to mutate H2H...how will we know when it has happened with all of the other possibilites of death and sickness in that country?  I have a gut feeling we won't know until it's at our doorstep, or other countries begin to report sustained H2H.

Scary thought but yeah thats crossed my mind, they're throwing caution to the wind in Africa.  Thats very alarming actually