Human Bird Flu Case Suspected
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200703/kt2007030817465210160.htm
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Officials are testing a 38-year-old quarantine worker for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain after he became ill after a culling operation at a poultry farm in Ansong, Kyonggi Province, on Monday.
A new case of highly-virulent bird flu was also reported Thursday at a poultry farm in Chonan, South Chungchong Provice, raising more questions over the government’s ability to control the spread of the disease.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), which revealed the suspected human bird flu case Thursday, said it will take at least a week to confirm whether the man was infected.
If the man tests positive, it would be the country’s second case of a human being infected with the disease.
Four quarantine workers were treated for infection in 2003 after participating in a culling operation in South Chungchong Province during a bird flu outbreak at chicken farms there. Although they tested positive, the four men did not show any flu-like symptoms.
Health officials are also examining the blood serums of all 304 quarantine workers who participated in the culling operations in Ansan, the KCDC said. Quarantine workers had culled more than 218,000 chickens and ducks and more than 7,300 pigs after a bird flu outbreak was confirmed at a chicken farm last month.
``The 38-year-old public worker, whose last name is Kim, suffered from coughs, headaches, and pain in the back after returning from a culling operation in Ansong and is now being treated at the Dankook University Hospital in Chonan,’’ said Kang Young-ah, an official at the KCDC.
``Kim was fully equipped with protective gear during the culling operations and took anti-flu drugs for more than seven days after his the first operation on Feb. 10. We are now examining his respiratory specimen and blood specimen, and it will take about a week from now for the test results to come out,’’ she said.
Fevers of more than 38 degrees Celsius or severe pain and respiratory conditions such as coughs or sore throats are some of the symptoms health authorities consider as suspected infections of the bird flu virus, the KCCD said.
The bird flu case in Chonan is the seventh bird flu case since Nov. 25 when the first outbreak was reported on a poultry farm in Iksan, about 230 kilometers south of Seoul.
Authorities started an investigation into the fresh case Tuesday when a farmer reported that about 30 ducks at the farm died of an unknown cause, the Health and Welfare Ministry said, adding that the remaining 13,000 on the farm will be slaughtered.
The official said the quarantine authorities were to cordon off an area within a three-kilometer radius of the duck farm and cull the 55,000 chickens and ducks within the zone.
The bird flu virus, also called avian influenza, results from a type of virus in birds loosely related to the influenza virus in humans. Some strains of the virus are capable of crossing the species barrier from birds to humans, creating a new subtype that is highly lethal in humans.
The virus has infected More than 250 people around the world since 2003. At least 161 are believed to have died from the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2003 and 2004, South Korea destroyed more than 5 million domesticated birds to curb the spread of the disease.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200703/kt2007030817465210160.htm
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Officials are testing a 38-year-old quarantine worker for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain after he became ill after a culling operation at a poultry farm in Ansong, Kyonggi Province, on Monday.
A new case of highly-virulent bird flu was also reported Thursday at a poultry farm in Chonan, South Chungchong Provice, raising more questions over the government’s ability to control the spread of the disease.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), which revealed the suspected human bird flu case Thursday, said it will take at least a week to confirm whether the man was infected.
If the man tests positive, it would be the country’s second case of a human being infected with the disease.
Four quarantine workers were treated for infection in 2003 after participating in a culling operation in South Chungchong Province during a bird flu outbreak at chicken farms there. Although they tested positive, the four men did not show any flu-like symptoms.
Health officials are also examining the blood serums of all 304 quarantine workers who participated in the culling operations in Ansan, the KCDC said. Quarantine workers had culled more than 218,000 chickens and ducks and more than 7,300 pigs after a bird flu outbreak was confirmed at a chicken farm last month.
``The 38-year-old public worker, whose last name is Kim, suffered from coughs, headaches, and pain in the back after returning from a culling operation in Ansong and is now being treated at the Dankook University Hospital in Chonan,’’ said Kang Young-ah, an official at the KCDC.
``Kim was fully equipped with protective gear during the culling operations and took anti-flu drugs for more than seven days after his the first operation on Feb. 10. We are now examining his respiratory specimen and blood specimen, and it will take about a week from now for the test results to come out,’’ she said.
Fevers of more than 38 degrees Celsius or severe pain and respiratory conditions such as coughs or sore throats are some of the symptoms health authorities consider as suspected infections of the bird flu virus, the KCCD said.
The bird flu case in Chonan is the seventh bird flu case since Nov. 25 when the first outbreak was reported on a poultry farm in Iksan, about 230 kilometers south of Seoul.
Authorities started an investigation into the fresh case Tuesday when a farmer reported that about 30 ducks at the farm died of an unknown cause, the Health and Welfare Ministry said, adding that the remaining 13,000 on the farm will be slaughtered.
The official said the quarantine authorities were to cordon off an area within a three-kilometer radius of the duck farm and cull the 55,000 chickens and ducks within the zone.
The bird flu virus, also called avian influenza, results from a type of virus in birds loosely related to the influenza virus in humans. Some strains of the virus are capable of crossing the species barrier from birds to humans, creating a new subtype that is highly lethal in humans.
The virus has infected More than 250 people around the world since 2003. At least 161 are believed to have died from the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2003 and 2004, South Korea destroyed more than 5 million domesticated birds to curb the spread of the disease.
Last edited:
