Sailor feared to have bird flu

Sailor feared to have bird flu

MALAYSIA: One Malaysian navy sailor remained ill with flu-like
symptoms and four others recovered on Saturday as the country
scrambled to determine whether potentially deadly bird flu was
spreading beyond a quarantined northern state.

The sailors remained under observation at the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Sabah state on the tip of
Borneo island, said Ramlee Rahmat, director of disease control at
the health ministry.

Authorities expected test results in the next few days on the
sailors and dead swallows that they came into contact with during
a patrol on Layang-Layang island, part of the disputed Spratlys
group, to see if the lethal H5N1 flu strain was present.

The island lies more than 1,500 kilometers from the northern
peninsular state of Kelantan, site of all of Malaysia's bird flu
cases so far since the first erupted in a village Aug. 17 in
fighting cocks smuggled from Thailand. -- AP