Asia is facing the grave situation of fighting against the
spread of bird flu outbreak, with the reports of more human
contraction of the disease in recent days.
Vietnam's Health Ministry confirmed that a 40-year-old man from
northern Hai Duong province has died of bird flu on Wednesday, the
country's 49th victim of the fatal disease. Some chickens have died
around his house over the past few weeks, local media said.
Vietnam also reported that over 600 ducks raised by a household
in the central Quang Ngai province died from Feb. 11 to 13.
Vietnam has confirmed a total of 103 human cases of bird flu
infections, including 49 fatalities, since the disease started to
hit the country in December 2003, leading to killing and forced
culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.
Meanwhile, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation
Department of Hong Kong said Thursday that a gray heron found in
Lok Ma Chau was confirmed to be H5N1 positive.
The bird carcass was found and collected on Feb. 8 near San
SamRoad, Lok Ma Chau in the New Territories.
This is the third bird flu case to hit the city this year. A
black-crowned heron at Hong Kong's Ocean Park, a major Hong Kong
tourist attraction, was found to have been infected with the virus
on Feb. 1, closing the aviary for three weeks. A great Egret also
tested positive for the killer strain last month.
Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird
flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died.
Over the past two months, there were also reported bird flu
outbreaks in such Asian countries as Indonesia, Thailand,
Bangladesh, Laos, Pakistan, India, Myanmar and Nepal.
A 15-year-old Indonesian girl from West Jakarta has been
infected by avian influenza, bringing the total cases to 127 with
103 of them fatal, Indonesian health ministry said Tuesday.
Experts have said that improper initial medical treatment and
poor hygiene of the traditional poultry market were blamed for the
highest fatality rate of bird flu in Indonesia, the world's fourth
most populous country with a population of over 240 million.
A fresh outbreak of bird flu among fowls has struck Laos'
southern Luang Namtha province, Lao newspaper on Tuesday quoted a
local agriculture official as saying.
Some 600 poultry in Nam Ma village, Long district, died last
week, said Bounkhouang Khambounheuang, head of the Department of
Livestock and Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry, noting that their specimens have been tested positive
tobird flu virus strain H5N1.
The bird flu which is spreading fast in Bangladesh recently has
so far affected 40 out of the total 64 districts of the
country.
The avian influenza virus was first detected in a poultry farm
in Savar, about 30 km northwest of Dhaka, in March 2007. The
situation has been getting worse since last month as the bird flu
virus is spreading fast across the country.
According to latest statistics, 560,000 poultry birds of 228
poultry farms in 40 districts have been culled across Bangladesh
since the detection of the bird flu in the country in March last
year.
Twenty-six districts of Thailand's northeastern province of Khon
Kaen were on high alert of deadly bird flu after local fowl died
mysteriously last week, provincial Governor Panchai
Bawornrattanapran said on Sunday.
Thailand is among the countries hardest hit by the deadly H5N1
virus, having recorded 24 human cases, including 16 fatalities,
since the outbreak in 2004.
In Myanmar, a seven-year-old girl was reported as the country's
first human-infected bird flu case on Dec. 15.
Bird flu H5N1 virus has also been detected in a poultry farm in
southern Pakistan's port city of Karachi. At least 5,000 chickens
have been killed and buried in view of the outbreak.
India has culled about 2.5 million birds in West Bengal since
the outbreak was confirmed in the middle of January. The affected
districts increased to 13 in the state.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the West
Bengal situation as "serious".
The H5N1 virus has afflicted more than 60 countries since it
began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003, forcing the slaughter
of hundreds of millions of birds worldwide.
Experts fear bird flu may mutate into a form that spreads easily
among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human
cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
WHO experts said that at least 226 people have died worldwide
from the virus since 2003. That number does not include the latest
death in Vietnam. Experts said a bird flu pandemic among humans
would kill millions worldwide.
(Xinhua News Agency February 15, 2008)