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