Thailand declares war on bird
flu By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - Thailand has declared bird flu its
"enemy" after the world's first "probable"
human-to-human infection killed at least one Thai and
perhaps infected her relatives.
International
health officials dampened fears of a mutant virus
evolving in Thailand, but they warned of a worst-case
scenario if avian influenza's deadly H5N1 virus invades
a person already ill with human influenza and the two
viruses mix. The viruses could then mutate into a
never-seen-before, uncontrollable "submicroscopic
parasite" capable of mass human death, similar to the
1918 Spanish influenza that killed tens of millions of
people.
Health officials insist mutation has not
occurred, because Thailand's current cases involve only
healthy people who have contracted the virus.
Yet shaken by the mounting risks, Thai Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told a meeting of provincial
governors in Bangkok on Wednesday, "I have 31 days [for
you] to stamp out bird flu, from October 1 to October
31.
"Bird flu is our common enemy and needs to
be destroyed," the prime minister declared.
In
reality, his deadline appears to be merely a rhetorical
wake-up call and not a final solution.
"It has
taken some countries seven to 10 years to end the
disease," Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang warned
on Wednesday.
"For us, we are talking at least
three to five years," Chaturon told a Bangkok radio
station the same day. "There are no fences along borders
of countries in Asia to block migrating birds."
Thailand's virus-monitoring system suffers weak
links including secretive officials, underfunded
hospitals, defiant chicken owners, and a Buddhist
tradition of cremating the dead often before detailed
autopsies are performed. Other Southeast Asian countries
stricken by bird flu share the same problems, as does
China, delaying the containment of bird-flu outbreaks
there.
"Bird flu is a crisis of global
importance," said He Changchui, assistant director
general of the United Nations' Food and Agricultural
Office (FAO).
"There have been fears since the
beginning of the crisis that human-to-human transmission
could occur. FAO shares with WHO [World Health
Organization] this concern," He said in a statement on
Tuesday.
"The virus continues to circulate in
the region and will probably not be eradicated in the
near future," He said.
The FAO official was
referring to China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and
Thailand, where more than 100 million chickens perished
or were slaughtered this year because of bird flu,
mostly during the winter.
At least 10 people in
Thailand have died from the two outbreaks of the virus
this year. Vietnam, the other Asian country as badly hit
by the virus, has had 20 deaths due to the disease.
"FAO is eager to see further evidence and
information to help us to understand if, and what, may
have changed in the biology or genetic makeup of the
incriminated virus to give rise to this probable
human-to-human transmission," He said.
In June,
Thai officials congratulated themselves when the death
toll stopped after eight fatalities from an initial
winter outbreak. Their cheerful boasts were
overconfident, however, and the disease infected more
chickens and people in July. Among the dead was a person
who bred so-called "fighting cocks" and apparently
contracted the disease from sick roosters raised to
battle in bloody contests that attract rural audiences
and gamblers. Some owners of fighting cocks earlier
vowed to hide their prized contenders from government
culling teams because the roosters are valuable and many
did not exhibit signs of illness.
Then an
international alarm sounded this week when UN medical
officials realized the bird-flu virus may have been
transmitted from a Thai daughter to her mother -
possibly the world's first case of human-to-human
transmission.
The child, Sakuntala Prempasee,
apparently contracted bird flu from live infected
chickens while staying in her aunt's village, doctors
said. When Sakuntala died in early September,
unsuspecting Buddhist priests cremated her body without
an autopsy. Sakuntala's mother, Pranee Thongchan, then
died on September 20 from a confirmed case of bird flu,
leading officials to declare the world's first
"probable" human-to-human transmission.
Before
their deaths, Pranee, 26, had visited her 11-year-old
daughter in the hospital in the northern province of
Kamphaeng Phet. It was there that Pranee experienced
"very close and face-to-face exposure" to her sick
daughter, the Health Ministry said.
Before she
died, the mother also met with her elder sister, Pranom,
who was later confirmed to be suffering from bird flu.
Both women were in close physical contact with the
feverish girl. Doctors spent Thursday monitoring
Pranom's illness and that of her sick six-year-old son,
who also apparently caught the virus.
All four
victims appeared to have contracted the same H5N1 bird
flu virus, UN health officials said.
Thailand's
lucrative poultry industry, which depends on massive
international exports, was bracing for a downward spiral
amid fears that Thais and foreigners would shun Thai
chicken even if it is confirmed safe to eat. Thailand,
the world's fourth-largest chicken exporter, culled more
than 40 million birds during the initial outbreak this
year.
"Avian influenza usually spreads when live
birds carrying infection are bought and sold, and by
contact of birds with bird droppings on dirty equipment,
cages, feed, vehicles or shoes and clothing," the FAO
said.
In another statement, the Health Ministry
said, "Although the finding of probable human-to-human
transmission is clearly of concern, there is currently
no evidence of ongoing chains of transmission, or risk
to persons outside of the affected province."
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based
journalist from San Francisco. He has reported news from
Asia since 1978 and is co-author of Hello My Big Big
Honey!, a non-fiction book of investigative
journalism. He received a master's degree from Columbia
University's Graduate School of Journalism.
