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Asia bird flu spreads: 7-Year-old dies in Thailand
Singapore, Feb 03: A deadly strain of bird flu killed a seven-year-old boy in Thailand Tuesday and spread to Indonesia as officials across the region scrambled to limit damage to Asia`s huge tourism sector.
Singapore, Feb 03: A deadly strain of bird flu killed a seven-year-old boy in Thailand Tuesday and spread to Indonesia as officials across the region scrambled to limit damage to Asia's huge tourism sector.
China, which has the world's largest population of poultry, said the potentially lethal H5N1 strain had been detected in poultry in teeming Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.
Three other regions on the mainland have also reported the strain, the only form of the avian influenza virus known to have killed humans. The death of 7-year-old Virat Phraphong from the major chicken farming province of Suphanburi in Thailand takes the death toll from the disease to 13.
He had pneumonia for a month before he was transferred to and put on a respirator at the Children's Hospital in Bangkok last month, his doctor said.
Despite cases of bird flu in 10 countries across Asia, only some have reported the H5N1 strain and the virus has leaped to humans only in Thailand and Vietnam. Four people have died in Thailand and nine in Vietnam.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, said on Tuesday it had detected the H5N1 strain in poultry.
"The identification process indicates the virus H5N1 in poultry ... but so far there is no case among humans," Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, director of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry, told a news conference.
Indonesia's poultry industry, estimated to be worth about 60 trillion rupiah ($7.2 billion) annually, has seen costs from the outbreak run to about 7.7 trillion rupiah.
To stave off the threat to Asian tourism, officials meeting in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, weighed strategies such as joint marketing campaigns, fewer curbs on travel and discounts on air travel and hotel stays.
The bird flu outbreak comes a year after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) devastated Asian economies. The Asian Development Bank says that outbreak cost the region $60 billion.
Bureau Report
China, which has the world's largest population of poultry, said the potentially lethal H5N1 strain had been detected in poultry in teeming Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong.
Three other regions on the mainland have also reported the strain, the only form of the avian influenza virus known to have killed humans. The death of 7-year-old Virat Phraphong from the major chicken farming province of Suphanburi in Thailand takes the death toll from the disease to 13.
He had pneumonia for a month before he was transferred to and put on a respirator at the Children's Hospital in Bangkok last month, his doctor said.
Despite cases of bird flu in 10 countries across Asia, only some have reported the H5N1 strain and the virus has leaped to humans only in Thailand and Vietnam. Four people have died in Thailand and nine in Vietnam.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, said on Tuesday it had detected the H5N1 strain in poultry.
"The identification process indicates the virus H5N1 in poultry ... but so far there is no case among humans," Tri Satya Putri Naipospos, director of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry, told a news conference.
Indonesia's poultry industry, estimated to be worth about 60 trillion rupiah ($7.2 billion) annually, has seen costs from the outbreak run to about 7.7 trillion rupiah.
To stave off the threat to Asian tourism, officials meeting in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, weighed strategies such as joint marketing campaigns, fewer curbs on travel and discounts on air travel and hotel stays.
The bird flu outbreak comes a year after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) devastated Asian economies. The Asian Development Bank says that outbreak cost the region $60 billion.
Bureau Report