Girl, 14, Dies of Bird Flu in Thailand

Mon Oct 25, 9:04 AM


BANGKOK, Thailand - A 14-year-old girl in northern Thailand has died
of bird flu, a health ministry official said Monday, raising the number of
human fatalities in Southeast Asia this year to 32.

The unidentified girl died from the lethal H5N1 strain of avian
influenza last Tuesday in northern Sukhothai province, said Dr. Thawat
Suntrajarn, director-general of the Health Ministry's Department of
Communicable Disease Control.

"This was a person who fell ill and who was on the list of suspected
cases," he told The Associated Press. "Today the lab results confirmed it,
and we've changed it from a suspected to confirmed" case of bird flu.

The victim lived in an area where "the whole neighborhood farms
chickens," Thawat said, without elaborating on how the girl contracted the
disease.

She had been sick for 11 days, according to a Health Ministry
statement.

The girl's relatives have not shown symptoms of the disease but are
being monitored daily by doctors, Thawat added.

Further details were not immediately available.

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu appeared throughout Asia early this
year, ravaging poultry farms and sparking a region-wide health scare.
Authorities in Asia culled tens of millions of birds in an attempt to thwart
the spread of the disease, but it resurfaced in July.

The latest fatality brings the number of human deaths from avian
influenza in Thailand this year to 12, eight of whom were children. Another
20 people have died from the disease in Vietnam.

The virus has most commonly been found in chickens, and officials
believe the disease is transmitted mainly through close contact with
infected birds. But scientists fear it could mutate by combining with a
human flu virus and spark a global pandemic.

The disease also has been detected in other species.

Last week, Thai authorities announced that almost 100 endangered
tigers had died or been culled at a private zoo after eating raw chicken
carcasses believed to be infected with the disease.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to rid Thailand of the disease
by the end of October after the country announced its first probable case of
human-to-human bird flu transmission last month.

But international experts say the virus appears to be entrenched in
the region and is likely to take years to bring under control.

Sukhothai province is 360 kilometers (220 miles) north of the Thai
capital, Bangkok.