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Thailand for faster Tamiflu use to fight bird flu
28 Jul 2006 12:07:26 GMT
<!-- 28 Jul 2006 12:07:26 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove--> Source: Reuters
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<!-- AN5.0: inline article box end --> <script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.alertnet.org/bin/js/article.js"></script> <input value="13" name="CurrentSize" id="CurrentSize" type="hidden"> By Kamil Zaheer NEW DELHI, July 28 (Reuters) - Thailand, which saw its first human death from bird flu after an eight-month lull, will push for the use of the drug Tamiflu in suspected cases rather than wait for lab results, a Thai official said on Friday. The proposal, which follows the death of a 17-year-old boy this week, would apply to seven provinces where the H5N1 virus is endemic, said Thawat Suntrajarn, Director-General of Thailand's Department of Disease Control. "We have to revise our clinical practice guidelines and the criteria to start Tamiflu," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an Asian bird flu conference in New Delhi. "If we have unusual deaths of chickens, even in the backyard, and a patient gets fever, even if not severe as in pneumonia, doctors have to start Tamiflu without any results of the laboratory," he said. Tamiflu, produced by Roche Holding AG, is the most commonly used anti-bird flu drug. Doctors initially suspected the teenager in the northern province of Pichit was suffering from dengue haemorrhagic fever and was not given Tamiflu, despite his known close contact with poultry, Thawat said. The teenager could have had both dengue fever and bird flu, he said. Thousands of Thais get dengue fever every year and it has killed 22 people in the past seven months, he said. The latest bird flu death, the 15th in Thailand since 2003, occurred after the boy helped his father bury dead chickens in a remote village in Pichit, 340 km (210 miles) north of Bangkok. Around 20 people, including the dead boy's father, two other relatives, at least 13 neighbours as well as doctors and a nurse who treated him were under surveillance for bird flu. Their first round of blood and sputum tests had shown them negative for the H5N1 strain. But they would be kept under watch until a second round of tests were completed within two weeks, although none was showing any symptoms of avian influenza, Thawat said. Thailand was slow to respond to bird flu when it first started devastating poultry flocks in late 2003, badly hurting what was the world's fourth largest chicken export industry. Thawat defended Thailand's bird flu awareness campaign but said more needed to be done after the latest human death, especially among minority groups and people living in rural and hilly areas. "Maybe all over the country there are some minority groups who have no awareness of the risk communication. That we have learnt," he said.