Bird Flu Watch: Vientiane, Laos; India declares itself bird flu-free
July 30, 2006 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
A bird flu outbreak was reported in a commercial farm south of the capital Vientiane and the UN confirmed that it is caused by the H5N1 virus. About 2,500 chickens died last week in the same farm where a similar outbreak occurred in January of 2004. The Lao government has culled all chicken, disinfected the farm and placed a five kilometer quarantine. The country has effectively been virus-free since 2004, except for an isolated case H5N1 in a single duck found dead two months ago.
Meanwhile in a few weeks, India will claim a H5N1-free certificate from the OIE, the international animal health agency, after three months of being free from new cases of bird flu. And to prevent recurrence, India also plans to put four hi-tech animal disease-testing laboratories in preparation of next seasons bird migration. The country has also developed a poultry vaccine against H5N1 that it plans to sell in the coming months.
[News Sources: The Star Online; India News]
Tags: avian flu, flu outbreak, H5N1, Laos, OIE
You may find the following posting by a blogger on our site to be interesting:
Bird Flu Free!
By jmtom, blogging @ http://www.birdflunewsflash.com
(From the Bangkok Post, Via http://www.birdflubreakingnews.com)
The number of patients suspected to have bird flu has reached 113 across the country and all are being kept under strict surveillance, the Public Health Ministry said. The results of laboratory tests are still awaited and until then health workers cannot say for sure how many, if any, have picked up the disease.
Here is the conversation I had, with this friend of mine from Thailand, regarding the above news item:
ME- Did you see that news item? How many patients with possible Bird Flu?
HIM- Well, 113 patients actually, but according to the Thai Public Health Ministry, the patients’ condition was not worrisome.
ME- What do you mean by that? How can the condition of the patients with suspected Bird Flu, NOT be worrisome?
HIM- It is their own fault any way, because they had apparently failed to disclose the information about having close contact with fowl carcasses.
ME- Was Thailand not free of Bird Flu though?
HIM- Every one thought that it was. We had not had any human cases of the Bird Flu for a more than eight months, so we were all a bit relaxed.
ME- But the Birds can just fly over the borders, in to any country! How can any country believe it self to be free of the Bird Flu, while there are still birds out there, in the rest of the world, infected with this virus?
HIM- The authorities are doing all they can. After the 17-year-old man died of bird flu last Monday, in the northern province of Phichit, they Culled over 300,000 of birds.
ME- That is lot “Culling”! How were so many birds destroyed? Did they gass them like the Irish do?
HIM- I do not know how the 300,000 birds were killed.
ME- Do you think that “Culling” all those birds, will make Thailand Bird Flu free again?
HIM- I hope so.
ME- I hear that India is also “Bird Flu free” now.