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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy
"So the Thai officals say the girl is not infected, but still there is no explanation for why all the birds died."
Quote:
"He said the fowl deaths were caused by weather fluctuations and environmental changes."
Well, I guess that H5N1 in the environment is a fundamental change, right?
Two more suspected bird flu cases in Phichit
PHICHIT, July 19 (TNA) - Health authorities in the lower northern province of Phichit hospitalised two young sisters earlier this week after they developed bird flu-like symptoms, provincial officials said Wednesday.
The two suspected cases are sisters aged three and four years old, according to doctors who sent the children's blood samples to a laboratory for testing. Test results were to be known on Thursday.
The two sisters were sent to the Phichit Provincial Hospital from the Ta Pan Hin District Hospital after they developed bird flu-like symptoms including a high fever and cough.
Many poultry in their home village sickened and died of unknown causes before the girls themselves became sick.
Medical doctors at the Phichit Provincial Hospital sent the sisters' blood samples to the provincial Medical Sciences Centre for testing and the results are expected to be known on Thursday.
The two girls are now quarantined and their symptoms are being monitored.
Meanwhile, in order to stop the possible spread of bird flu from the diseased birds, provincial livestock officials buried about one hundred domestic chickens which died of unknown causes and disinfectant
was sprayed around the burial sites. (TNA)-E003
Maybe you're right, Hawkeye. I mean what about all the dead chickens--it MUST be weather-related. I mean, what else could it be? A virus? No way!! It has to be weather. Thailand has huge weather swings--everyone knows that. I mean, right now the average daily temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Did you know that back in March it was 94 degrees! That's like a drop of 4 whole degrees from winter to summer!!! (3.6 to be exact!) And then of course there's the raininess! It is raining at a rate of 16.5 cm a month right now. Two months ago it was only 8 cm. That's like 0.1 inches of EXTRA rain a day in just two months! No wonder they're all getting fungal pneumonia from all the wetness. Yeah, now that I think about it, you're right.
Local livestock office considers province at risk of becoming centre for epidemic
Suphan Buri, one of the areas worst hit by avian-flu outbreaks, was finally declared an "emergency disaster area" yesterday.
The declaration followed a recommendation by the provincial livestock office that the province should be considered as a "suspected avian flu epidemic area", the province's governor said.
Songphol Thimasart said the livestock office had been monitoring an unusual rise in the number of farm-raised chickens dying in different areas around the province and suspected the deaths to have been caused by bird flu.
Under this status, Songphol said, the province would be able to seek emergency funding in advance in case of future compensation payments tofarmers to mitigate the impact of their birds dying or being culled.
This kind of compensation could only be made if the province is considered an "emergency disaster area" as a result of being a suspected avian flu epidemic area, Songphol said.
It was reported last week that about 200 chickens in the province's Muang district had died en masse, with livestock authorities taking some of the dead birds for testing to see whether the H5N1 virus was the cause of death.
The official test results have not yet been revealed, while reports of chick deaths possibly caused by bird flu had sprung up at various locations in the district.
A poultry farmer, who asked to remain nameless, in Song Phi Nong district said that from his experience with bird flu he thought that the 200 chickens had died from the virus.
"I was glad to see the province make this clear announcement [of it being an emergency disaster area] so that people here are aware and can prepare themselves," he said.
Meanwhile, in Phichit province, two young girls, aged three and four, were added to the watch-list of suspected human cases of bird flu yesterday after they were admitted to hospital with high fever, coughing and severe breathing difficulties.
Lab test results to determine if they have contracted the lethal virus are expected today.
The two girls, who reportedly fell ill in a community in Taphan Hin district where chickens have been dying, were being treated in an isolation ward pending their test results.
These two new cases brought the total number of suspected human bird-flu cases in the province to seven.
The other five cases are three children aged between three and five and two adults, one 57 and the other 72.
It looks like strange things are happening in Phichit...
***
SEASONAL COLDS RAISE BIRD FLU FEARS
July 22, 2006 (ThaiDay)
Recent reports of hundreds of dead birds and scores of sick people in Central Plains provinces have alarmed health and agriculture officials on the lookout for bird flu. Although doctors from the Health Ministry say the illnesses are not due to the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus, agriculture ministry officials say people are getting lax in reporting sick animals, which could lead to an outbreak.
?Most people in high risk provinces are not reporting sick or dead birds to authorities,? said agriculture minister Sudarat Keyuraphan yesterday.
The statement comes just a week after her ministry designated seven provinces in the Central Plains region ?high risk? and began an investigation into whether communities were trained in proper procedures for handling and reporting sick birds.
The Agriculture Ministry will be ?adjusting their prevention plan? by coordinating with health officials to make sure that area farmers are properly advised, according to the minister. Part of the new plan will involve visits to all ?high risk? villages, she said.
Khunying Sudarat?s announcement comes as another two children from the Central Plains province of Phichit have been cleared of avian flu.
Earlier this week, two young girls were reportedly sent to Phichit Provincial Hospital after they developed severe flu-like symptoms, including a high fever and cough. The girls, who were put in quarantine on Wednesday but released yesterday, are among scores of people in the Central Plains region who have fallen ill in recent weeks.
?Many people certainly can be alarmed by the information... What we know is that many people are coming down with fever, but these symptoms are not necessarily avian flu,? said Dr PT Jayawickramarajah, the World Health Organization?s representative in Thailand.
So far, none of the birds tested in the high risk areas have been found to be carrying bird flu, said a spokesman from the Agriculture Ministry. And doctors at the Health Ministry say the increase in reports of sick people means that, while farmers may not be following the advice of government officials on reporting sick birds, at least doctors are following the advice of government officials on reporting sick people.
The Health Ministry says that since last year it has been receiving a marked increase in calls from community healthcare providers reporting patients displaying suspicious symptoms.
?Usually now when local physicians see seasonal influenza symptoms, they will send sputum samples to our department for testing... [Yesterday we had] 19 [severe influenza] cases under investigation. However, when you look at the epidemiological data and the clinical information, none of them appear to have avian flu. Many of the cases we have seen are H1 seasonal influenza,? said Dr Paijit Warachit, director general of the ministry?s Department of Medical Science.
The ministry said it has been testing an average of 20 specimens a day this month, which Dr Paijit estimated to be five times June?s average. The spike in potential cases correlates with the country?s annual flu season, said the doctor. ?Unlike Europe or the US, which will see more flu cases in the winter, usually, we see seasonal influenza in Thailand in the rainy season,? said Dr Paijit.
Pay attention to this area. It has all the makings of a modern-day primordial soup out of which bad things can emerge. Bird flu is spreading through the country, and no one seems to care... I would also keep in mind that Thailand produces approximately 13 million pigs a year, mostly in the northern half of the country. Not a good situation to be in
Again, more agitated news coming from Phichit!
Leading virologist Professor Prasert Thongcharoen expressed strong doubts yesterday about the accuracy of official reports [in Thailand].
***
BIRD DEATHS "WILL BE AVIAN FLU"
Expert doubts the accuracy of official reports on tests
By Arthit Khwankhom (The Nation)
July 22, 2006
Amid mounting reports of irregular poultry deaths in many areas, leading virologist Professor Prasert Thongcharoen expressed strong doubts yesterday about the accuracy of official reports of avian-flu tests on dead birds by livestock authorities.
"From my experience, when they say 'no, nothing' it means 'yes, it is' [bird flu]," he told The Nation in a telephone interview after returning from a trip to Phitsanulok, one of the provinces where mass deaths of poultry have been reported recently.
"I will give it eight out of ten that what has caused such an abnormal pattern of poultry deaths was it [the bird-flu virus]."
Prasert has previously confronted the government by telling the media that a patient sent to Siriraj Hospital, where he works as a professor of microbiology, had died of avian flu while the government kept insisting the virus did not exist in the country. The government later admitted that the death was the first case in Thailand of a human dying from the virus.
"To be fair, they might have checked the samples and simply could not detect the virus," said Prasert. "Yet, once again, things are so obvious."
Some epidemiologists at the Public Health Ministry have complained to Prasert, their adviser, that they were put under pressure to travel to examine areas where poultry deaths were reported.
Since the Public Health Ministry is not in a position to test for the avian-flu virus in birds, the best they could do is to be pro-active in screening patients for possible infection, he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Paijit Warachit, head of the Medical Sciences Department that is responsible for testing suspected human cases of bird flu, said 19 tests for the lethal H5N1 virus had been negative. Eight had the H1N1 influenza strain.
At the moment, he said, there were between 10 and 20 cases sent for testing per day and none had yet been positive.
The department might need to dispatch a mobile testing unit to Phichit, which has the highest number of samples to be tested.
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