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.