Thailand: PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

[hawkeye]

PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

BANGKOK, July 8 (TNA) - Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Saturday urged concerned officials to step up vigilance against the deadly bird flu disease, especially now that the country is more impacted by the rainy season.

Speaking during his weekly radio program, Mr. Thaksin said the country had been free of avian influenza for more than 290 days due to good cooperation between the public and private sectors.

Denying rumors of a recent outbreak of a new round of the disease which had killed many chickens and birds, Mr. Thaksin said they died from an infection called "Newcastle disease" and not bird flu.

Despite a long absence of the disease, officials must keep a close watch especially in areas that were affected before, he added. (TNA)--E111

 

[Lyro]

Thailand puts 7 provinces on bird flu watch list

Thailand puts 7 provinces on bird flu watch list

THAILAND PUTS 7 PROVINCES ON BIRD FLU WATCH LIST
July 15, 2006 (Reuters)

Bangkok -- Thailand has stepped up bird flu surveillance in seven provinces for the hot, monsoon season when the virus could re-emerge, a senior government official said on Saturday.

"July is a risky month. Over the past two years the outbreak started this month," Yukol Limlaemthong, head of the Livestock Department, told Reuters.

He said four northern provinces -- Uttaradit, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok and Pichit -- would be closely monitored for outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, which has killed 14 Thais since it emerged in late 2003.

"They are risky areas because of flooding and the rainy season. This situation is good for the virus to grow. We have not found the virus, but we want people to be alert," Yukol said.

Three provinces where outbreaks have occured in the past two years -- Suphan Buri and Kanchanaburi in the west and Nakhon Pathom near the capital, Bangkok -- were also on the watch list.

Thailand was slow to respond to the disease when it began ravaging poultry flocks in late 2003, but it now has one of the strongest surveillance systems in the region.

Thailand has not had a human death since December 2005 and no new outbreaks among poultry for about 8 months.

However, a recent incident where Thai villagers ignored government warnings and handled and ate chickens that died mysteriously has raised fears that public vigilance against the disease is waning.

The global human death toll now stands at 132 after Indonesian officials said on Friday a three-year-old girl who died this month had tested positive for the virus.

Experts fear the avian influenza virus could spark a human pandemic if it mutates into a form that can pass easily among people.

Source: www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK207957.htm

 

[Bruce]

Re: Thailand: PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

[FONT=&quot]This one is on my watch list from now.[/FONT]

 

[Lyro]

State authorities possibly concealed the matter for political reasons

State authorities possibly concealed the matter for political reasons

Your intuition seems to be working pretty well, Kissa! We should follow your lead, for senator Nirand Pitakwatchara from Thailand declared that "state authorities have concealed the matter [resurfacing of bird flu] for political reasons". Of course, the source that revealed this information to the press wants to remain anonymous...

Si tout cela s'av?rait v?ridique, quelle machination! Tout ce cirque pour prot?ger la sacro-sainte ?conomie au d?triment de la sant? publique. Ce serait d?cid?ment lamentable.

***

BIRD FLU HAS RETURNED, SUSPECTS SENATOR
By Phoojadkarn Daily (Thai Day)
July 17, 2006

Photo: Senator Nirand Pitakwatchara speaks to the press. Source

Outgoing Ubon Ratchathani senator Nirand Pitakwatchara said at the weekend that he believes bird flu has resurfaced in Thailand, but that state authorities have concealed the matter for political reasons.

Nirand, a former chairman of the senate committee on social development and human security, said it was most likely that the Agriculture Ministry, under Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, who was responsible for dealing with avian flu when she was Public Health Minister, has teamed up with the Public Health Ministry to cover up the reappearance of the disease to protect the Thai Rak Thai government.

?If bird flu has really come back, it means that all the government?s measures to prevent the disease have failed miserably,? said Nirand.

?It seems to me that the government?s previous actions were only meant to build up its image and gain political popularity,? he added.

The senator?s comments coincided with the disclosure by a livestock official who told a Phoojadkarn Daily reporter that bird flu has returned in Phichit and Phitsanulok provinces, killing poultry there in recent months.

Livestock officials have been told to keep their mouths shut as the news may affect the government?s stability and lead to a worsening of political and economic conditions, said the source, who asked not to be named.

Source

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Thailand: PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

Phichit chickens died of cholera not birdflu: govt

A widespread rumour that the deadly H5N1 virus was found in Phichit has been denied by both the Agriculture and Public Health ministries.

Pinij Charusombat, caretaker Public Health Minister, said yesฌterday there were no new birdflu infections - and no coverup, as many feared.

"We never cover up cases since it would damage our national health security, which has been appreciated by the international community," he said.

Pinij said if new cases were found he would report them to the Thai public, international comฌmunity and the World Health Organisation (WHO). He insisted that since there has been no new cases of humans infected since December 7, last year.

The Department of Livestock Development has admitted many chickens died mysteriously in the northern provinces, particularly in Phichit.

However, Pornchai Chamnanpood, director of National Institute of Animal Health, said the laboratory tests on the dead chickens showed all were caused by cholera. This year, more than 53,000 dead chickens have been sent to the institute for lab tests.

"It sounds so many, but the death of chickens raised in backฌyards is not something to wonder to. That environment is not as hygienic as in commercial farms - it is easy for chickens to get sick and die," he said.

Dr Nirund Pitakwatchara, an incumbent senator, said last week he believed the country has been hit by a new round of the deadly virus. His assumption was based on the mysterious deaths of chicken in Phichit and three patients suspected to have caught bird flu.

 

[Bruce]

Re: Thailand: PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/18Jul2006_news19.php


Ministry says it hasn't been covering up any outbreaks [SIZE=-1]PIYAPORN WONGRUANG[/SIZE]
<!--img--> <!--/img--> The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry yesterday denied vehemently it had been covering up fresh outbreaks of bird flu following reports of mass deaths of poultry over the past few weeks. It could not possibly conceal such outbreaks because its bird flu surveillance and diagnostic operations were monitored closely by various agencies such as the World Organisation for Animal Health, said Charal Trinvuthipong, assistant to the agriculture and cooperatives minister.

Covering up bird flu outbreaks would also end up doing more harm than good to the country, he added.

Officials had conducted so-called ''X-ray'' bird flu surveillance tests nationwide from last month and about 53,000 fowl tissue samples tested negative for bird flu, Mr Charal said.

Mr Charal was responding to a pointed query from an outgoing senator, Nirun Phitakwatchara, a member of the Senate's panel on human development and social security, who suspected the ministry had been concealing the recurrence of bird flu after poultry deaths on a large scale were reported in many areas devastated by previous outbreaks.

The ministry was accused of mismanagement and covering up the disease when it first struck the country in early 2004.

About 61 million poultry died or were culled in the first outbreak. But H5N1 has not been detected in Thailand since November.

''Our ongoing active bird flu surveillance operations may have misled people into believing there have been bird flu outbreaks. It's true that the disease, which is now endemic to Thailand, may emerge again today or tomorrow. However, it is impossible for us to cover up outbreaks if they do occur,'' said Mr Charal.

The Livestock Development Department reported on Sunday that fowl died in huge numbers in 430 tambons in 50 provinces. The department's laboratory tests confirmed that 351 tambons were free of bird flu, while 79 tambons in 23 provinces were still awaiting test results.

Meanwhile, more chicken deaths were reported yesterday, including about 1,000 in Phichit and 300 in Phitsanulok provinces. The test results on the samples are due to be released next week.

Pornchai Chamnanpood, director of the department's National Institute of Animal Health, a focal point for diagnosing bird flu in animals, also dismissed the allegation that the institute was ''ordered'' to cover up bird flu detections.

He said the fowl deaths were caused by weather fluctuations and environmental changes, which had prompted some fungi and bacteria to grow more rapidly, devastating livestock. The lethal organisms had been found in some chicken carcasses.However, a high-level source at the department said about 10% of samples were unsuitable for diagnosis of H5N1. The bird flu virus could be elusive and impossible to detect in some cases.

Yukol Limlamthong, head of the Livestock Development Department, said that since the disease was already present in the country, the department did not rule out a possibility of a re-emergence of the virus. The department had been upgrading poultry farm management along with imposing strict controls on fowl movements and carrying out frequent disinfections of bird flu-risk areas as part of the bird flu prevention and surveillance scheme.

 

[Gaby]

Re: Thailand: PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

THAILAND: " THINGS ARE SO OBVIOUS"

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."

Source:crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/
July 21, 2006 at 02

 

[Theresa42]

Professor Prasert Thongcharoen

Professor Prasert Thongcharoen

Professor Prasert Thongcharoen. Add his name to the list of bf heroes.

 

[Theresa42]

Re: Thailand: PM calls for constant vigilance on bird flu

THAILAND: " THINGS ARE SO OBVIOUS"

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."

Source:crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/
July 21, 2006 at 02

There's more to this article. Here's the rest of it:

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.

Arthit Khwankhom
The Nation

http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com/...com/2006/07/22/national/national_30009304.php