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Bird flu flares again in Asia

16 Jan 2007 15:46:49 GMT
Source: Reuters

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World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman for the Asia-Pacific Peter Cordingley gestures during an interview in Manila January 16, 2007. The WHO said there were no signs of the virus spreading between humans and the reaction of most countries was much better than in the past. "Obviously we are very concerned if this virus should develop the ability to transmit between humans. We have not seen any clear sign of that yet. We are hoping it will stay the way it is," Peter Cordingley told Reuters Television in Manila.
REUTERS/CHERYL RAVELO

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(adds quotes from top WHO bird flu expert, paras 7-9, 19-20)

By Mita Valina Liem

JAKARTA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia prepared more hospitals to deal with bird flu cases and Japan confirmed a first outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in three years on Tuesday as the virus flared again in Asia, mirroring past winters.

Concern about the disease have rippled across the region, with an Indonesian hospital struggling to cope with suspected human cases this week, and the virus spreading among flocks in Vietnam and flaring again in Thailand.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there were no signs of the virus spreading between humans and the response of most affected countries was much better than in the past.

"Obviously we are very concerned if this virus should develop the ability to transmit between humans. We have not seen any clear sign of that yet. We are hoping it will stay the way it is," Peter Cordingley, WHO spokesman for the Asia-Pacific, told Reuters Television in Manila.

The WHO says bird flu has infected 267 people in 10 countries and killed 161 since 2003. There are fears that millions could die if the virus were to mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person.

Four Indonesians have died already this year, taking the number killed by bird flu in the country to 61, the highest in the world.

In Geneva, the WHO's top bird flu expert said an unknown number of Muslims returning from the annual haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia were treated in hospital in Indonesia for fever, a common symptom that could signal bird flu.

"The hospitals in Indonesia have been extremely overworked right now with people with fever. This is because pilgrims, as they return from the haj, if they do have a fever of any type, are hospitalised...in order for diagnostic testing to go on for a series of diseases," David Heymann, acting WHO assistant director-general for communicable diseases, told reporters.

"Avian influenza of course is one of them, but not the only one," he added.

FEARS OF A CLUSTER

Indonesia has struggled to contain the disease as millions of backyard chickens live in close proximity to humans and health education campaigns have often been patchy.

Nyoman Kandun, the Indonesian health ministry's director general of communicable disease control, said: "In the event of an escalation, more hospitals must be prepared. We are taking an inventory of what they need."

A doctor at Jakarta's Persahabatan hospital, one of two designated to treat bird flu cases in the capital, said it was overwhelmed with patients with bird flu symptoms.

Six children were discharged after tests found they did not have the virus, but three are still in hospital and another three with similar symptoms have been admitted, said Muchtar Ikhsan, head of Persahabatan's bird flu ward.

They include an 18-year-old man confirmed to have bird flu -- the country's fifth case this year -- and his father from Serpong in west Java, who has similar symptoms but has so far tested negative for the H5N1 virus.

The teenager's mother died of the disease last Thursday, raising fears of another possible cluster in Indonesia, where bird flu is endemic in around half of its 33 provinces.

A Japanese farm official said a bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan was due to the H5N1 strain.

There have been no reported cases of human infection or additional outbreaks in poultry in Japan. Almost 4,000 birds died from the disease at the affected farm, and authorities killed the remaining 8,000 chickens at the farm on Sunday.

H5N1 has spread across much of Asia, into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Migrating birds and poultry smuggling are believed to be some of the ways the lethal virus has spread.

The WHO's Heymann said stronger measures to control the virus in poultry in many countries meant there was a lower risk of individual human infection from the H5N1 virus.

But he added that a pandemic risk would persist as long as the virus remained in circulation. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Pathoni, Rolando Ng in Manila, Miho Yoshikawa in Tokyo and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)) (Writing by Sugita Katyal, editing by Keith Weir; ahmad.pathoni@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging; ahmad.pathoni.reuters.com@reuters.net; tel +6221 384 6364))

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Last updated:Tue Jan 16 15:50:03 2007