Post Suspect Cases Possibly Not Being Reported - Event Date: June 12 2006

Suspected bird-flu cases in Phichit

Three more people with suspected bird-flu have been reported in Phichit, one of the provinces listed by the government as an avian-flu "red zone".

Two of the patients were men aged 59 and 86 and the other was a boy aged seven. All three had reportedly been in contact with dead chickens and were being treated in an isolation ward at Phichit Hospital.

Pending the results of laboratory tests for evidence of the bird-flu virus, doctors said the three patients were not allowed visitors.

Livestock officers in the province were stepping up disinfection of sites where irregular poultry deaths were reported. Hundreds of such deaths have recently been reported in the province.

Meanwhile, deputy chief health officer for Chiang Mai, Surasing Wisarutarat, warned the public not to cook dead chickens, no matter how they died.

"The group we're most concerned about is immigrant workers," he said. "They are most likely to opt for dead chickens and risk contracting bird flu."

Despite numerous reports of irregular poultry deaths in many areas, particularly the North and Central provinces, the Department of Livestock Development insists that no avian flu has been detected so far.

Unknown causes leave hundreds of birds dead

POST REPORTERS

The mysterious deaths of birds in Chachoengsao's Bang Khla district and some provinces in the Northeast have triggered another avian influenza scare. Hundreds of birds, including poultry, have died from unknown causes in the eastern province of Chachoengsao over the past week.

The provincial livestock office sent some bird carcasses for laboratory tests and is awaiting the results.

But Wiroj Prayoonwiwat of the provincial livestock office said he did not think the bird flu virus was the cause of the deaths. Birds such as doves usually carry some natural diseases which can kill them during the rainy season.

However, the office has sprayed disinfectant in the area to contain any possible spread of disease as a precaution, he said.

Pradit Kraisorn, head of the tambon administration organisation of Hua Sai in Bang Khla district, said hundreds of doves at the Wat Mai Kumorn community, which usually perched on the roofs of the temple and on villagers' houses, had dropped dead. Some locals' chickens had also fallen ill and died.

Thanakorn Huadsakul, 58, a bus driver at the Ratchanakharin Rajabhat University's Bang Khla campus, said birds had just plunged headfirst into the ground and died. It seemed as if they lacked the physical strength to fly, he said.

In Nakhon Ratchasima, 30 patients with flu-like symptoms have been put in quarantine, while fowls have died mysteriously in nine tambons in the province.

Birds, including poultry, have also been found dead in 13 tambons in Chaiyaphum, one tambon in Surin, nine tambons in Yasothon, and one tambon each in Roi Et, Si Sa Ket and Amnat Charoen.

The latest laboratory results confirmed that the deaths in most of the areas were not caused by bird flu.

Only the test results for one tambon in Surin and one tambon in Yasothon had yet to be released.

Poultry in the affected areas were culled and disinfectant was sprayed.

Meanwhile, Bangkok will host the first international training course on rapid responses to outbreaks of respiratory pathogens, including avian influenza and pandemic influenza.

More than 100 officials from 14 countries will attend the course from July 17 to 21 to get hands-on training in what to do in the first 72 hours after receiving reports of an outbreak among people.

The course is a collaborative effort between the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ministry of Public Health, the World Health Organisation, and the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy's public health sector.