Avian flu reappears in Thailand; death toll reaches 21 in Asia

Avian flu reappears in Thailand; death toll reaches 21 in Asia

Agencies Bangkok

Thailand's hopes of following Japan in declaring a swift end to its huge bird flu crisis were dashed on Monday as the virus which has killed 21 Asians reappeared in eight areas where it had been thought vanquished.

Japan planned to declare an end to its sole outbreak this week if no new cases were reported, officials said, and Thailand had hoped to follow suit by the end of this month despite warnings from United North health experts that it was being premature.

But deputy agriculture minister Newin Chidchop told reporters the H5N1 virus had been found in fighting cocks in areas of eight provinces where mass slaughters were carried out and in ducks in one not struck by the first wave of infections.

"We have found 14 spots in nine provinces," he said.

The infected fighting cocks -- valuable birds some owners were accused of hiding -- were found in former "red zones" where the government had ordered the slaughter of poultry within a five km radius of an outbreak, he said.

Thailand, where six people have died after catching the highly infectious virus from sick poultry, had been warned by the World Health Organization (WHO) that it was in too much of a rush to declare the crisis ended.

Meanwhile, the human price in Asia's bird flu crisis mounted on Monday with Vietnam's 21st case of the disease confirmed, while Singapore's top health official moved to ease fears of travel in Asia by saying it's safe going to countries affected by the virus.

The 15-year-old boy in Vietnam was hospitalized with fever, coughing and shortness of breath in northern Thanh Hoa province, where doctors said it was unclear how he was infected.

Many of the 21 people killed by bird flu in Asia have come from poultry farming families or otherwise had contact with birds sickened by the outbreak, which was first reported in December in South Korea and now spans across 10 countries.

The boy's family raises no poultry, and says he did not come in contact with birds, although his neighborhood did experience a bird flu outbreak, health officials said.

"We were surprised that he got infected with the bird flu," said Dr. Le Trong Dung of Thanh Hoa General Hospital.

The WHO said some countries appeared to be putting business ahead of human health, a charge Thailand said could not be levelled at it despite having the world's fourth largest chicken export industry which earns more than $1 billion a year.

And, as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra assured worried Thais the crisis would be declared over soon, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization emphasized how difficult it was to stamp out the virus, thought to be spread by migrating birds.

It could take months, even a couple of years, to be sure the H5N1 virus was no longer a threat, the FAO said.

Thailand had promised to be meticulous in ensuring the eradication of the virus and it was a second set of tests in former "red zones" which discovered the bug was still present. It has slaughtered 30 million birds, about the same number as Vietnam, where at least 14 people have died of bird flu and which reported two more cases of the disease.

A 15-year-old boy tested positive for the disease and was being treated at a hospital in the northern province of Thanh Hoa while a 22-year-old man was confirmed as having the disease and was in hospital in Ho Chi Minh City in the south.

The virus, which has struck in eight Asian nations, is still spreading. Even Tibet's towering mountains and thin air haven't kept it out.

China's Ministry of Agriculture said the H5N1 avian flu virus had been found in Lhasa, the Himalayan region's capital, about 3,600 meters above sea level.

That would add to the sense of urgency at an emergency meeting of senior health and agricultural officials, including UN experts from Bangkok, from seven South Asian nations on Monday to discuss joint efforts in tackling the epidemic.

The meeting in New Delhi on the other side of the Himalayas, which are crossed by migrating birds, "will deliberate on possible cooperation for tackling the problem of avian influenza," the Indian government said in a statement.

India has no reported cases of bird flu so far, but neighboring Pakistan, like Taiwan and three states in the United States, has been struck by a milder strain of avian flu that cannot cross the species barrier into humans.