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Thailand finds H5N1 in wild birds
Four pigeons were among a group of wild birds that
died last month in the central province of Suphan Buri.
Tests confirmed they had the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, said Thawat
Suntrajarn, the Health Ministry's director general of disease control.
"We
have asked all related officials to closely monitor the death of poultry and
birds,'' Thawat said. "Any people that have flu-like symptoms with a history of
contacting poultry will be quarantined.''
Indonesian Cases
In Indonesia, the virus is reported
to have killed 61 people since mid-2005, including at least three this
year.
Test results showed at least 10 patients hospitalized for suspected H5N1
were negative for the virus, said Muhammad Nadirin, an official at the
Indonesian
Health Ministry's avian flu information centre. An 18-year-old man, whose
37-year-old mother died this week of H5N1, remains in hospital in critical
condition, the
WHO said in a
statement on its Web site yesterday. The man's father, who also showed flu-like
symptoms, tested negative for the virus. The family is from Tangerang city in
Banten
Province.
"Investigations into the source of his infection indicate similar
environmental exposure as his mother,'' the United Nations health agency said.
Almost all human H5N1 cases have been linked to close contact with sick or dead
birds, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or plucking
feathers. There is little evidence linking human cases with contact with wild
birds, said Denis Hoffmann, a technical adviser on avian flu with the
UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in
Bangkok.
Infections in birds and people seem to be on the increase, particularly in
Asia, where the virus was first identified a decade ago.
Editor WorldPoultry
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