- (AFP) -- German health authorities were examining a suspected
case of the potentially fatal bird flu that has killed at least 12 people
in Asia, in what could be Europe's first case of the illness.
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- A woman who returned from Thailand on Saturday with symptoms
similar to those produced by the disease has been taken to the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute
for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, a spokesmen for the fire department said.
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- The institute said in a statement that she was in good
condition but had bouts of nausea, dizziness and fever.
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- Another woman who was travelling with her had been under
observation, emergency services said Monday.
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- Firefighters who transported the two women to the institute
wore protective clothing and were disinfected after the journey.
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- A spokesman for the institute warned the public against
any panic.
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- "There could be a number of reasons why you would
have a fever when you return from a trip to Asia," spokesman Bernhard
Fleischer told ARD public television.
-
- He said the source of the problem would be determined
"in the coming hours".
-
- A spokesman for the Robert-Koch Institute, the chief
centre for the study and treatment of infectious diseases, said that a
human case of bird flu disease in Germany is "unlikely but not impossible".
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- But he admitted that he had no details about the Hamburg
case.
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- Ten Asian countries are battling to contain outbreaks
of bird flu amid warnings that an outbreak could kill millions if the most
deadly strains are able to mutate with a human flu virus.
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- Most of the deaths -- nine in Vietnam and three so far
in Thailand -- are thought to have been caused by contact with an infected
bird, often poultry farm workers culling the animals.
-
- The World Health Organisation says it has so far found
no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the illness.
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