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