Malaysia faces bird flu quarantine
Malaysia faces bird flu quarantine
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur
Three children exposed to the carcasses of culled chickens
were hospitalized with flu-like symptoms Wednesday as Malaysia
mulled whether to widen a quarantine to cover an entire state
near the Thai border to contain a spreading bird flu outbreak.
The children, ranging from 4 to 14, were in an isolation ward
undergoing tests for bird flu after they complained of headaches,
cough and fever to workers conducting house-to-house checks in
their village in Kelantan state, said Ramlee Rahmat, a senior
health official.
No Malaysians have yet been infected by the deadly H5N1 strain
of bird flu - which has killed 28 people in Thailand and Vietnam
- but the disease had defied efforts to eradicate it since
erupting Aug. 17 in Kelantan in fighting cocks smuggled from
Thailand.
Malaysia has screened some 10,000 people for signs of the
disease and gassed thousands of chickens, ducks and pet birds to
stop it spreading.
On Tuesday, the flu for the first time jumped the limited
quarantine zone that had been declared in a 10-kilometer (six-
mile) radius around the tiny village where the disease was
discovered last month, and officials said the quarantine zone
could be spread statewide.
"We will have no choice but to enlarge the quarantine area if
the number of new bird flu cases in Kelantan continues to
increase," Muhyiddin Yassin, the agriculture minister, was quoted
as saying in the New Straits Times newspaper Wednesday.
"This is to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of
the country and becoming a national outbreak," Muhyiddin said.
Malaysian authorities suspect that the most recent outbreak
may have had similar origins to the first - fighting cocks
smuggled back and forth from Thailand in defiance of increasingly
strict border controls.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has urged villagers to
keep their fighting birds within the state.
Increased friction has been reported and police intervened
Monday to protect inspectors from sickle-wielding villagers upset
that pet peacocks were being gassed.