H5N1 virus spreads further, now entraps Thailand

The extremely infectious H5N1 virus has shown its existence in some Asian countries last week, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, and most recently in Thailand. A new outbreak of H5N1 bird flu was found in pigeons and other wild birds in northern Thailand, health officials said Monday.

This is the first outbreak of avian flu virus in Thailand, the world's fourth-largest poultry exporter, suffering in six months, stimulating the Thai health agencies to intensify their vigilance for the deadly virus that threatens to infect humans.

The virus was discovered in the northern province of Phitsanulok, where more than 100 ducks were reported dead, said Manet Runluang, an official at the Public Health Ministry's Department of Communicable Disease Control.

"The lab results confirmed that some ducks in the northern province of Phitsanulok have been infected with H5N1 bird flu virus," Livestock Department chief Pirom Srichan said. "We have culled about 1,900 ducks in the area."

The virus hit area has many wild and free-range ducks and the department has been gathering birds from within a three-mile radius of the outbreak to be culled, Runluang added.

After a rash of outbreaks in Vietnam and four human deaths in Indonesia this year, the avian flu is now entrapping the birds in Thailand. In the wake of H5N1 virus that continues to circulate in poultry, Thailand's Public Health Ministry has ordered the communicable disease control department to intensify the efforts to curb the outbreak and prevent its potential spread to humans.

"Although we have not found a case in many months, we have asked governmental health organizations to help monitor cases of flu, coughs and pneumonia, especially among people who have come into contact with birds," said Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla.

Thailand was last affected with the outbreak of the virus in late July, with a human death in August. There have been 17 human deaths in Thailand since the virus re-emerged in Asia in late 2003.

The H5N1 bird flu virus, which has spread to the Middle East and Africa, has killed at least 161 people around the world, so far, including 61 in Indonesia, according to the data provided by World Health Organization.

Although, most of the victims have been infected by fowl birds, but WHO still fears the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, with possibilities of a pandemic.

Meanwhile, Japanese officials on Tuesday confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 virus at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan, country’s first outbreak in almost three years. The H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected last week at a farm in Kiyotake town in Miyazaki prefecture where about 4,000 chickens were reported killed. However, no human infections from this outbreak have been reported.

Vietnam, which has had no human H5N1 cases since November 2005, is facing new outbreaks in poultry in Soc Trang province of the southern Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Indonesia, the hardest hit by the virus, has reported fresh four human fatalities, including a 37-year-old woman from Banten Province on Java Island, a 14-year-old Indonesian boy on the outskirts of Jakarta, a 27-year-old woman from south Jakarta and a 22-year-old woman from the industrial town of Tangerang near Jakarta.

The recent H5N1 human deaths have pushed the number of Indonesian bird flu victims this year to 4 and overall national toll to 61, which is more than a third of the world's total.