Asian nations scramble to prevent bird flu from spreading

Asian countries scrambled Friday to limit the spreadof bird flu following a fresh outbreak among poultry in South Korea, as health officials remained uncertain over whether human deaths from bird flu in Indonesia have permanently dropped.

South Korea has had three outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu virus at chicken and quail farms since November, resulting in the slaughter of more than 1 million poultry in an attempt to keep the disease from spreading.

In Vietnam, some poultry farmers have been unwilling to comply with the government-ordered cull, endangering other flocks and themselves. ...Some 6,000 chickens and ducklings have died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in the past two weeks in Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces, in the first reported cases of the virus in Vietnam in a year.

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Vietnam battles three bird flu outbreaks

Authorities in Vietnam have identified three new outbreaks of bird flu in the Mekong Delta, raising fears of a larger-scale return of the deadly H5N1 virus after a year of relative calm, an official said Friday. ...No human cases of bird flu have been reported, but chickens and ducks have died of bird flu in three new areas in the Mekong Delta provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, which this week reported the first confirmed cases in more than a year.

"The situation is alarming," said Hoang Van Nam, director of the Epidemic Unit under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. ..."Our assessment is that bird flu is likely to spread far outside the outbreak confirmed localities," Nam said. "Once the virus spread to the environment, other provinces will be affected."

Nam said the onset of winter represents heightened vulnerability for infection in both poultry and humans - especially as the coming lunar new year celebrations usually see families slaughtering chickens for feasts.

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Bird flu spreads in Vietnam

Authorities in Vietnam said on Friday that bird flu had spread in two provinces in the southern Mekong delta, where massive outbreaks were first reported early this week.

Additional cases of the deadly H5N1 virus were detected in Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces, with nearly 8 300 poultry dead or culled, the national animal health department said on its website. ...The two provinces were the first to report major outbreaks of bird flu in the communist nation within the past year. The virus had been identified in different locations in August but only a few storks were said to be killed.

The ministry asked all local authorities to step up monitoring for outbreaks of avian influenza and warned officials they could face sanctions if all necessary measures were not taken. ..."Local authorities and animal health workers are responsible for monitoring the epidemic situation. Local authorities will bear full responsibility for any late detection of the outbreaks," it said on its website.

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Bird flu in Nigeria is more widespread than thought

According to experts, a fresh outbreak of avian influenza in Nigeria is more widespread than thought, provoking fears of long-term risks.

The Nigerian Veterinary Association says the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu remains a major problem in Nigeria and warns that the country risks triggering an even bigger round of infection.

"What we considered a resurgence is becoming alarming. From an initial three, then 10 states, almost all the states have been having a recurrence," he said. "That is a very serious challenge and it also calls for a review of the entire process that we adopted. In the last month, we've heard about Delta State, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River and a lot of cases in Lagos."

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Bird Flu Struck Aceh Region In Indonesia

The Indonesian Health Ministry says that thousands of birds in Indonesia's Aceh province have been affected by Avian Influenza.

Suyono, a member of the investigation team of the ministry combating avian flu said the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has contracted tens of thousands of chicken in seven districts in the province.

The country's health ministry has already given the order to slaughter all poultry in a radius of one mile and to vaccinate all poultry in a radius of 2.4 miles. ...The official said two out of the seven districts were hit by the tsunami in 2004, the Senedon district and Santa Lira Bayu district.

Minister cautions of possible bird flu spread

Minister Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat warned that bird flu is likely to spread throughout the Mekong Delta provinces and may reoccur in localities in the Red River delta and border areas.

Speaking at the meeting in Hanoi Tuesday, head of the Veterinary Department Bui Quang Anh also warned of the possible spread of the human form of aviation influenza in the coming time.

Anh stressed the infection of bird flu in southern provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu has temporarily been brought under control. All poultry in the infected areas, reported at around 9,000 fowl, were culled.

Indonesia claiming bird flu success as cases drop

Human bird flu deaths in Indonesia have slowed markedly over the last three months - a drop local officials attributed to a more aggressive fight. But The World Health Organization said it was too soon to draw conclusions.

The WHO cautioned that the fall - a rare piece of good news in the country worst hit by the H5N1 virus - did not indicate a trend and refused to speculate on possible reasons for it.

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Natural calamities keep tourists away from Indonesia

...a string of calamities - from terrorist bombings, earthquakes and tsunamis, to bird flu outbreaks that have killed at least 57 people since the spread of the disease last year - have taken their toll on the tourism industry.

Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik admitted that Indonesia is losing out on tourist arrivals compared to neighbouring countries, and blamed it partly on limited promotion funds - explaining that Indonesia's tourist promotion budget only amounted to $10 million in 2007, compared with Malaysia's spending of $60 million on its 'Truly Asia' campaign.

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Third Vietnam province hit by bird flu outbreak

1 hour, 28 minutes ago

HANOI (AFP) -

Bird flu killed more than 400 ducks in Vietnam this week as the virus jumped to a third southern province, animal health authorities have said.

"About 450 ducklings of between one and two months of age died in two communes of Long My district, Hau Giang province," said Nguyen Ba Thanh, director of the Can Tho regional animal health department Thursday.

Vietnam and the United Nations last week launched a public awareness campaign on the risk of the H5N1 virus in the winter months and ahead of the mid-February Tet New Year festival when poultry consumption usually rises.

Vietnam has reported no new human cases since November 2005 of the disease that killed 42 people in the country between 2003 and 2005, but animal outbreaks have now been reported in three provinces over the past week.

Epidemiologists have warned the H5N1 virus could trigger a global pandemic if it were to mutate and become easily transmitted between humans.

This month's new bird flu outbreak has spread to 10 communes in six districts of the southern Vietnamese provinces of Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Hau Giang, said the communist country's central animal health department.

The latest outbreaks hit two flocks -- around 1,100 unvaccinated ducks -- said Nguyen Hien Trung, director of the Hau Giang animal health department.

"The farmers had brought ducklings from another province," he said. "They reported the poultry deaths to us, and we culled the rest of the flock immediately."

Thanks Murphs.


Update December 30, 2006

Six human cases of bird flu are suspected in Vietnam's Mekong Delta: 4 cases in one family in the Nam Can district of Ca Mau province; 2 cases in My Tu district of Soc Trang province.

If confirmed, the cases will be the first reported human H5N1 infections in Vietnam since late 2005. In Vietnam, bird flu has killed 42 of the 93 people infected.

Six suspected bird flu cases in Mekong Delta

Six people were isolated under suspicion of bird flu infection in the Mekong Delta’s Ca Mau and Soc Trang provinces, all of them reportedly had eaten chickens, said local health officials Friday.

Huynh Trung Kien, acting manager of Ca Mau’s health department said the four cases, all in a family in Nam Can district, were hospitalized with symptoms like coughs and high fever after they consumed chickens last week.

Nguyen Huu Minh, deputy head of the animal health department of Soc Trang reported two people in My Tu district had difficulty breathing after eating chicken.

Bandung: Hendra Rizki Saputra , the resident Street ....., the Bandung City, of West Java, was run off with to the Hasan Sadikin Hospital because of being sick with the sign similar to bird flu.

Hendra fell ill after the chicken that was bought by his father died suddenly.

The child was 3 years old this immediately was placed in isolation space in order to gets the intensive maintenance.

The medical team also took the sample of casualties's blood to confirm positive or not the patient suffered bird flu.

www.liputan6.com...

Thanks murphs.

UPDATE: Suspected Vietnamese Human Cases

Vietnam family tests negative for bird flu

The mother and her three children fell ill a week earlier after eating a chicken that had died on their farm in Ca Mau, one of three southern provinces where the H5N1 strain of the virus has killed poultry this month.

"All four people, the mother and her three children from Ca Mau province, on Saturday tested negative for the H5N1 virus," Tu said.

"They were suffering normal pneumonia."

Bird flu spreading in Vietnam

02 Jan 2007

Over the past two days, more poultry deaths from bird flu have been reported in Vietnam’s Hau Giang, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces, and a new infection site has been discovered in Vi Thuy district.