Thai govt says no bird flu mutation

Thai govt says no bird flu mutation

THAILAND: Thai public health authorities rejected suggestions
on Sunday there was uncertainty about the latest bird flu
fatality or that the virus had mutated into an easily
transmissible form.

Thai-language newspapers quoted an agricultural official on
Sunday as saying he was "worried" about how a five-year-old boy
who died on Dec. 7 contracted bird flu, as the H5N1 virus was not
found in chickens near the boy's house.

All 14 people who have died of bird flu in Thailand contracted
the disease after coming into contact with sick chickens, the
public health ministry said in a statement.

Each person was "infected with the virus after touching
chickens or chicken dung inside or outside their houses," Kumnuan
Unguchusak, the Department of Disease Control's director of
epidemiology, said in the statement

"The Department of Medical Sciences has confirmed that there
has been no mutation found" in Thailand.

Health authorities fear that the virus could eventually mutate
into a form that passes easily between humans. -- AFP