Bird flu death toll rises to 15, China a worry

HANOI - The death toll from Asia's bird flu outbreak rose to 15 overnight as the virus ravaged poultry flocks in 10 countries and, most worrying, spread in China.


Vietnam said a 17-year-old woman had died of the disease and Thailand said tests confirmed a six-year-old boy who died earlier in the week was infected with the H5N1 virus.


The H5N1 bug, which can cross the species barrier, is still spreading despite a mass slaughter of poultry the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says it estimates at 50 million birds.


Guangdong, the southern Chinese province from which the SARS virus emerged before affecting 30 countries last year and killing nearly 800 people, definitely has the H5N1 avian virus.


Now 12 of the vast country's 31 provinces have confirmed or suspected outbreaks of bird flu. The FAO said bird flu had been confirmed in 53 of Vietnam's 64 provinces.


China has yet to report any human infections, unlike badly hit Thailand with 17 suspected cases as well as five confirmed and two probable deaths from the disease.


Most of the deaths have been attributed to direct contact with infected fowl, like the Thai boy who was present when his grandfather, now in hospital, killed chickens.


But Guangdong, where people live cheek by jowl with poultry and other farm animals, is widely regarded as a breeding ground for viruses which could cause a pandemic in humans.


That is still regarded as a remote threat and the World Health Organization said the possibility that two Vietnamese sisters might have caught bird flu from their brother did not mean a pandemic was any nearer.


But, WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said, the battle against bird flu was not being won.


"We are looking at a very serious situation in terms of the virus in the poultry world," he told Reuters Television in Manila. "At the moment, we are losing more than we are winning."


THAILAND FEELING BETTER


The FAO also said in a statement a smaller outbreak in Laos, sandwiched between China, Vietnam and Thailand, had not been stopped despite cullings on 20 farms.


Thailand is one country which believes it is winning the fight.


Its "red zones," the five-km (three-mile) area around a confirmed outbreak within which the government orders the slaughter of all poultry, were down to just 14 in seven provinces, government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said.


Monday, Thailand had 35 red zones in 16 provinces, a substantial drop from more than 140 in 29 of its 76 provinces last week following the slaughter of at least 25 million poultry.


Thailand, the world's fourth biggest chicken exporter, even hopes it can persuade the European Union to cut down a six-month ban on poultry imports from the Southeast Asian nation.


"I don't think they will ban us for six months since we have tackled the problem quickly," Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha told reporters a day after the EU confirmed its ban.


But China, widely castigated for covering up the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) for several months, remains a great worry and the government appears to be taking the outbreaks of bird flu very seriously.


The Ministry of Railways was inspecting baggage from affected areas under a bird flu reporting system introduced on Tuesday and vehicles from those regions faced spot checks, Xinhua said.


Beijing's biggest bus company resumed disinfecting its vehicles and depots daily, as it did during the SARS outbreak, and the city was spraying long-distance buses coming from flu-plagued zones, the official news agency said.


Beijing Zoo shut part of its bird garden and millions of homing pigeons reared by city folk were grounded, newspapers said.


HONG KONG BRACED


In Hong Kong, zoology professor Frederick Leung said an infectious disease which has preceded previous outbreaks of H5N1 had wiped out many flocks of chickens.


The H5N1 virus first appeared in Hong Kong in 1997 and leapt the species barrier to kill six people.


Leung said the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), which weakens the immune system and leaves surviving fowl more vulnerable to bird flu, had killed up to 10 per cent of some flocks in the New Territories.


"So do not be surprised and do not be alarmed if some of our farms begin seeing the H5N1," he said.


- REUTERS