THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

[Theresa42]

Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu killed a man in northern Thailand yesterday, the first case reported in seven months in the world's fourth-biggest poultry exporter.

The man from Phetchabun province, about 350 kilometers (218 miles) north of Bangkok, tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters in Bangkok today. Part of the province has been declared a "red zone'' -- the highest level of H5N1 alert, Thaksin said.

Human H5N1 fatalities have almost tripled this year as the virus spread in wild birds and domestic poultry to at least 38 countries. New cases create chances for the pathogen to mutate into a pandemic form that may kill millions of people. The previous H5N1 outbreak in Thailand was in November and the last of the country's 22 human cases was reported in December.

During the past three years, H5N1 has infected at least 231 people in 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East, killing 133. This year, 57 fatalities have been reported to the Geneva-based WHO, compared with 20 in the first seven months of 2005.

The virus was first reported in Thai poultry in January 2004 and killed 14 people in the Southeast Asian nation over the following 23 months.

Thailand's health ministry had 18 human flu cases, including two in Phichit, under surveillance as of July 20, the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases said on its Web site. Six other cases were from Suphanburi, five from Phetchabun, two from Sukhothai, and one each from Sakaew, Uthaithani and Ayutthaya, it said.

Poultry Outbreak

Thirty-one chickens died of avian flu in the northern province of Phichit in an outbreak that began on July 16, Yukol Limlamthong, Thailand's director general of livestock, told the World Organization for Animal Health July 24. The government is culling fowl and disinfecting surrounding areas, he said.

Tests showed the fowl had a highly pathogenic H5 subtype of avian flu. More tests were being conducted to establish whether it was H5N1.

More than 209 million poultry have died or been culled worldwide since January 2004 because of H5N1, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said in a June 19 report.

Reports of human cases have tended to be highest during the cooler periods in the Northern Hemisphere, the WHO said in its June 30 issue of the Weekly Epidemiological Record. If this pattern continues, an increase in cases could be expected starting in late 2006 or early 2007, the report said.


To contact the reporter for this story:
Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok at at anguyen _at_ bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aorvesQF8WVg&refer=asia

[Theresa42]

Bird flu kills Thai youth amid new outbreaks

Bird flu kills Thai youth amid new outbreaks
Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:39pm ET

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A 17-year-old Thai has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the country's 15th death since the virus swept across parts of Asia in late 2003, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

The young man died on Monday in the northern province of Pichit, where authorities have confirmed the country's first outbreak of the virus among poultry in eight months.

"The final lab test confirmed that he died of bird flu," Kamnuan Ungchusak, head of the Health Ministry's epidemiology bureau, told Reuters by telephone from the hospital where the youth died.

He is believed to have caught the virus while helping his father bury dead chickens last week. The father remained healthy, Kamnuan said.

"We have quarantined the family and there is no report of a new case yet," he said.

The last death in Thailand occurred in December 2005.

Not including the latest death, bird flu has killed 132 people worldwide since the virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003, the World Health Organization says.

At present, H5N1 remains essentially a disease of birds and is hard for people to catch.

But scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans and trigger a pandemic in which millions could die.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-07-26T033847Z_01_BKK295755_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-THAILAND.xml&archived=False

[Theresa42]

Phichit teenager had bf and dengue

A teenage boy from Pichit died of bird flu : Thaksin
July 26, 2006

A teenage boy from Phichit had died of bird flu, making him the country's first casualty from the virus in over seven months.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the boy caught the virus from one of his fighting cocks in northern Thailand.

"The 16-year-old boy did not report the death of his fighting cock because he was afraid that authorities would slaughter his birds," Thaksin said.

"But it's too late, he died of bird flu after touching the dead bird that had been sick," he said.

Thai authorities Tuesday confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in Pichit, but the boy was not living on the farm where the disease was found.

Thawat Suntrajarn, chief of Pichit's disease control department, said the victim suffered from a deadly combination of dengue fever and bird flu, which he said was common in people who die from the H5N1 strain of the virus [??].

The boy died in hospital, one week after first visiting a doctor, Thawat said.

Health experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form that is transmitted more easily between humans.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/07/26/headlines/headlines_30009611.php

[Theresa42]

Bloomberg (Update 1)

Bird Flu Kills Youth in Thailand's First Case in 2006 (Update1)

July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bird flu killed a teenage boy in northern Thailand yesterday, the first reported case in seven months in the world's fourth-biggest poultry exporter.

The 17-year-old tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu strain, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters in Bangkok today. Fowl in the boy's northern province of Phetchabun province, about 350 kilometers (218 miles) north of the capital, were infected with the lethal virus, Thaksin said.

"He had been in contact with fighting cocks, which were not declared for fear they would be culled by authorities,'' Thaksin said. Thailand's fighting roosters are prized for gambling bouts and fetch as much as 500,000 baht ($13,156).

Human H5N1 fatalities have almost tripled this year as the virus spread in wild birds and domestic poultry to at least 38 countries. New cases create chances for the pathogen to mutate into a pandemic form that may kill millions of people. The previous H5N1 outbreak in Thailand was in November and the last of the country's 22 human cases was reported in December.

Thailand's latest case hasn't been confirmed by the World Health Organization. The youth died after being admitted to a Phichit hospital on July 20, said Thawat Suntrajarn, director general of the health ministry's disease control department, in a telephone interview today. He tested positive to both dengue hemorrhagic fever and H5N1 avian flu, Thawat said.

"He was a unique case'' because of the dual infections, Thawat said, adding that the youth "had a history of touching dead poultry.''

Charoen, GFPT

The reemergence of avian flu in Thailand caused shares of poultry-related companies to fall. Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl, Thailand's biggest seller of poultry and other meat, fell 0.1 baht, or 1.8 percent, to 5.5 baht at 10:34 a.m. in Bangkok, extending its 0.9 percent decline yesterday after the government first reported the new outbreak. GFPT Pcl, a smaller poultry producer, declined 0.1 baht, or 0.7 percent to 14 baht, extending a 0.7 percent loss yesterday.

Thirty-one chickens died of avian flu in Phichit province, which neighbors Phetchabun, in an outbreak that began on July 16, Yukol Limlamthong, Thailand's director general of livestock, told the World Organization for Animal Health on July 24. The government is culling fowl and disinfecting surrounding areas, he said.

Tests showed the fowl had a highly pathogenic H5 subtype of avian flu. More tests were being conducted to establish whether it was H5N1.

'Intense Investigation'

"The re-emergence of the virus reaffirms our concern about the potential of the disease to recur in high risk areas,'' Laurence Gleeson, regional manager of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Emergency Center for the Control of Transboundary Animal Diseases in Bangkok, said in an e-mail yesterday. "Further intense investigation should be carried out to determine the source of infection.''

During the past three years, H5N1 has infected at least 231 people in 10 countries in Asia and the Middle East, killing 133. This year, 57 fatalities have been reported to the Geneva-based WHO, compared with 20 in the first seven months of 2005.

The virus was first reported in Thai poultry in January 2004 and killed 14 people in the Southeast Asian nation over the following 23 months.

"The latest finding is an isolated case and not as bad as in 2004,'' Thai Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan told reporters in Bangkok today. [ ] "We have been doing our best to prevent it spreading to humans. Unfortunately the latest victim touched dead chickens with his bare hands.''

Thailand's health ministry had 81 human flu cases, including 37 in Phichit, and 21 from Suphanburi under surveillance as of July 23, the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases said on its Web site. Only one flu case was being monitored in Phetchabun.


To contact the reporters on this story:
Beth Jinks in Bangkok at bjinks1 _at_ bloomberg.net;
Laurent Malespine in Bangkok at lmalespine1 _at_ bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=az3IjN33u4FU

[Sharpe]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

Before my map of Thailand becomes any more illegible, I just wished to post it. Red crosses are people, yellow dots are poultry. I have no idea how useful the map is--I can't make head or tails of it any more, and you can't even see Phichit any more.

[stormsailor1981]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

a perfect seague into, all those positive dengue fever cases that have been reported were really h5n1, "the victim suffered from a deadly combination of dengue fever and bird flu, which he said was common in people who die from the H5N1 strain of the virus [??]." what a freudian slip.

[stormsailor1981]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

your map is filling up. only a handful of those areas are not dated june or july 06. looks like the lid has flown off pandora's box

[Theresa42]

16-year-old from Phetchabun or 17-year-old from Phichit?

a perfect seague into, all those positive dengue fever cases that have been reported were really h5n1, "the victim suffered from a deadly combination of dengue fever and bird flu, which he said was common in people who die from the H5N1 strain of the virus [??]." what a freudian slip.

I wonder how many (possible) Freudian slips the authorities can make about this case...?

Thailand reports first bird flu death in over seven months

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 26-Jul-2006 12:13 hrs

Thailand said that a teenage boy had died of bird flu, making him the country's first fatality from the virus in over seven months and the 15th overall.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the boy caught the virus from one of his fighting cocks in northern Thailand.

"The victim failed to report the death of his fighting cock because he was afraid that authorities would slaughter his birds," Thaksin said.

"But it's too late, he died of bird flu after touching the dead bird that had been sick," he said.

Thaksin identified the boy as a 16-year-old from Phetchabun province, but health authorities later said he was a 17-year-old in neighboring Pichit province.

Thai authorities confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in Pichit, but the boy was not living on the farm where the disease was found.

Thawat Suntrajarn, head of Pichit's disease control department, said the victim suffered from a deadly combination of dengue fever and bird flu, which he said was common in people who die from the H5N1 strain of the virus.

The boy died in hospital, one week after first visiting a doctor, Thawat said.

Health experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form that is transmitted more easily between humans, marking the first stage of a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

A global toll posted by the World Health Organisation last week showed there have been 228 human cases of infection from H5N1, 130 of them fatal. ? AFP

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/132770.asp

[colormyquilt]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

Theresa42. Would this "red zone" in your first post be Thailand's internal H5N1 alert system- or would this be referencing WHO's alert?

[Theresa42]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

Theresa42. Would this "red zone" in your first post be Thailand's internal H5N1 alert system- or would this be referencing WHO's alert?

Sounds to me as though it's the "red zone" in Thailand's system. That's how I read it anyway. (If there had been some sort of "red alert" warning from the WHO, I think we would've heard about it from other news sources as well.)

[colormyquilt]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

Theresa42. Thanks. I just reread your post on 14 July which had a report stating 20 new suspected bird flu cases per day in Thailand. Does not sound good.

[HenryN]

Re: Phichit teenager had bf and dengue

A teenage boy from Pichit died of bird flu : Thaksin
July 26, 2006

A teenage boy from Phichit had died of bird flu, making him the country's first casualty from the virus in over seven months.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the boy caught the virus from one of his fighting cocks in northern Thailand.

"The 16-year-old boy did not report the death of his fighting cock because he was afraid that authorities would slaughter his birds," Thaksin said.

"But it's too late, he died of bird flu after touching the dead bird that had been sick," he said.

Thai authorities Tuesday confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in Pichit, but the boy was not living on the farm where the disease was found.

Thawat Suntrajarn, chief of Pichit's disease control department, said the victim suffered from a deadly combination of dengue fever and bird flu, which he said was common in people who die from the H5N1 strain of the virus [??].

The boy died in hospital, one week after first visiting a doctor, Thawat said.

Health experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form that is transmitted more easily between humans.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006...s_30009611.php

Unfortunately, what is common is the misdiagnosis of H5N1 as dengue fever. The most cited H2H case was in Thailand in 2004 and although the index case was never tested, she was diagnosed as having dengue fever.

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02...sion_H5N1.html

These misdaignosis have also been made in Indonesia

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/09...ta_Dengue.html

and were also common in the 1918 pandemic

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02...H5N1_1918.html

History is clearly repeating itself, as the WHO looks on and congratulates Thailand for erradicating reports of H5N1.

Thailand's under reporting has been documented (which also documents WHO's failure to add these lab confirmed cases to its totals for Thailand

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01...ty_Missed.html

[Sharpe]

Re: Phichit teenager had bf and dengue

Unfortunately, what is common is the misdiagnosis of H5N1 as dengue fever.

It is for this reason that I make the following small points.
1) We started hearing about dengue this year in Thailand on the 1st of June, when in one of it's Myanmar-bordering provinces they reported that there was an unusual ly high number of dengue hemorrhagic fever cases.

Dengue fever outbreak reported in Mae Hong Sorn
People suffering from dengue fever have been identified in the Ampur Mae Sareang (แม่สะเรียง), with 6 total patients hospitalized.

The Mae Sareang Hospital in association with the local public health office and school administrators of the Mae Hong Sorn province have opened a campaign aimed at preventing the spread of dengue fever amongst children, after discovering 6 incidents of dengue fever both in adults and children in the province.

Mrs. Arounong Khamthai, head of the publice health office of Ampur Mae Sareang, revealed that a rising trend of class 4 dengue fever has been found in the Mae Hong Sorn province. Currently public health officials have been sent to remote villages and ampurs to inform local residents of the characteristics and preventative methods against dengue fever.

2) By late June and early July, many of those border areas were experiencing the worst dengue season they've ever experienced.

3) On July 23rd, Thailand announced that four of the same central states (Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan, Phichit and Uthai Thani) that were dealing with bird flu emergencies and had suspected human cases were also now dengue red zones.

4) Yesterday, in the Cambodia-bordering province of Surin (which is also one of the country's 15 worst bird flu-hit provinces), 2 girls were reported to have died of dengue, and the report continued that this was the worst dengue season Surin had ever seen.

[Christian Rivers]

Re: THAILAND - Bird Flu Kills Man in Thailand's First Human Case in 7 Months

Are there any links to key in on the status of nurses and other health care workers in this area of Thailand?
CR

[Theresa42]

Yongyuth Daengmeesri

Thailand confirms 15th bird flu death
The Associated Press

Published: July 26, 2006

BANGKOK Thailand on Wednesday confirmed that a 16-year-old boy who died this week was infected with bird flu, and the prime minister blamed the boy's relatives for his death, saying they had tried to hide an outbreak among their chickens.

Thai health officials said that Yongyuth Daengmeesri of the northern province of Phichit, who died Monday, became infected after helping his family bury some of their chickens that had died.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra held the boy's family responsible for the death because they had failed to inform the health authorities that their chickens were sick, and sought to avoid a required cull of all of their poultry.

"They buried the chickens themselves because they were worried that if they told the authorities, the authorities would cull all their chickens," Thaksin told reporters.

"The hospital learned about the case only after the patient's condition had deteriorated."

The boy became Thailand's 15th bird flu fatality and the country's first confirmed case in humans this year, according to laboratory results Wednesday morning.

Health officials also were closely monitoring three other suspected cases in Phichit Province, Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat said in a statement.

The boy, from the Tabklor district of Phichit, became sick July 15 and was admitted to the hospital Saturday. Yongyuth had helped bury his family's dead chickens seven days before he became ill, the Health Ministry statement said. He was not wearing gloves when he had contact with the dead chickens.

The statement said health officials were conducting lab tests to see if Yongyuth had dengue fever as well.

Agriculture officials on Tuesday had confirmed the H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens in Phichit. The new cases were the first found in Thai poultry in more than eight months.

Thai livestock officials said earlier this month that they were keeping a close watch for possible bird flu outbreaks in areas that have been hit by heavy rains and flooding, because the virus can live longer in wet climates.

The seven at-risk areas are the northern provinces of Uttaradit, Phichit, Phitsanulok and Sukhothai; and the central provinces of Suphanburi, Nakhon Pathom and Kanchanaburi.

The Thai authorities culled millions of chickens and ducks when a wave of bird flu struck Asia in 2004. Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken-exporting countries, has since conducted regular surveys to check for bird flu among poultry.

The last bird flu fatality was a 5-year- old boy in December.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/26/news/thai.php