- BANGKOK -- Asia's hopes for
a swift containment of the bird flu devastating its poultry industry were
set back yesterday when Thailand reported recurrent outbreaks in eight
provinces and China admitted the lethal virus had hit seven new areas -
including Tibet.
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- The acknowledgement of the resurgent bird flu in Thailand
and its continuing spread in China have highlighted the difficulties Asia
will face in containing the disease after authorities' initial reluctance
to acknowledge its presence in the region.
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- Thailand, the world's fourth largest poultry exporter,
had said it would soon announce the eradication of the lethal H5N1 virus
from its territory after the cull of an estimated 30m chickens.
-
- However, United Nations agencies including the Food and
Agriculture Organisation have cautioned against premature assumptions of
victory over the disease.
-
- The World Health Organisation is worried that the virus
could mutate into a form that could be easily transmitted from person to
person.
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- It warned Asian governments last week that the effort
to eradicate the virus would probably be a "complex, difficult and
costly undertaking".
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- But it said that public health concerns must be given
"the highest priority" compared with the economic losses of culling
infected and exposed poultry.
-
- Thailand yesterday said the bird flu was found in valuable
fighting cocks, some of which had escaped culling because of fierce opposition
from their owners.
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- Meanwhile Vietnamese authorities yesterday confirmed
two more people were infected with bird flu, ending a week-long lull in
the appearance of new human cases.
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- A 15-year-old boy who fell ill last week in northern
Thanh Hoa province and a 22-year-old man in Ho Chi Minh City were both
being treated in hospital for the disease, Vietnamese authorities reported.
-
- Twenty people are known to have died from bird flu infections
in Vietnam and Thailand, the only countries that have so far reported cases
of people being infected with disease.
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- Thai authorities said yesterday that a leopard that succumbed
to a resp- iratory ailment in a zoo east of Bangkok in early January had
died of the H5N1 virus.
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- Another tiger at the same zoo is recovering.
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- © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004.
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