Thailand confirms two cases of bird flu ( 2004-01-24 09:32) (Agencies)
Two suspected cases had been confirmed as bird flu
infection, Thai Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuthaphan told reporters on
Friday afternoon in Bangkok.
A Thai livestock
official collects chickens to be destroyed at a farm in Supanburi
province, 105 km north of the capital Bangkok on January 23, 2004. Thais
and tourists in Bangkok are shunning chicken after the government
confirmed two Thais have caught bird flu, but visitors said they were not
afraid to come to the country. [Reuters]
"A
seven-year-old boy from Suphan Buri and a six-year-old one from Kanchanaburi
have been tested positive for the H5N1 virus," the minister told a press
conference
The two boys both lived close to chicken farms in two central Thai provinces
and had contacted with chickens recently, said Sudarat.
She said the two patients with high temperature were currently receiving
treatment in a hospital in Bangkok, while medical staff gave antibiotic medicine
to other patients suspected of being infected.
She also said that there were at least four suspected cases yetto be
confirmed except the two boys.
It's the first time that the government admitted the country has bird flu,
which had devastated poultry industry in Vietnam, Japan and South Korea and
claimed five Vietnamese' lives.
Thailand's Agriculture Ministry was currently carrying on testsover samples
from 100,000 chickens on poultry farms to further study the disease.
Since November last year, Thailand had killed more than 850,000sick chickens
and the government explained the culling as measuresto curb the spread of a foul
cholera rather than bird flu.
Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Japan and France have declared to suspend
importing poultry products from Thailand.
Japan was Thailand's largest importer of chickens, buying some 270,000 tons
of chicken last year, about half of the kingdom's total chicken export.
The European Union, the second largest chicken importer from Thailand,
earlier threatened an immediate ban on Thailand's poultry products if the
suspected cases were confirmed.
Thailand was world's fourth largest chicken exporter. It shipped out 540,000
tons of chicken worth some 1.3 billion US dollars last year and had a target of
some 600,000 export for thisyear.
