Mince, la grippe aviaire est de retour en Thaïlande !!

Copie d'un article de "The Nation" (Bangkok) ce matin. La mauvaise nouvelle c'est que Kanchanaburi est à 1h30 de Bangkok.

DISEASE SPREADING: Three new avian flu outbreaks

Published on October 20, 2005

Man thought to be infected dies at provincial hospital. Chickens infected with avian flu have been found in three new districts of Kamphang-phet province, where mass poultry deaths are being reported, Vice Minister for Agriculture Jaral Tarinwutthiphong said yesterday.

Chickens raised by 263 farmers in several tambon were culled after more than 100 of them died on a farm in August. The three districts are Sai Ngam (tambon Sai Ngam and Nong Mai Kong); Khlong Khlung (tambon Wang Sai), and Bueng Samakkhee subdistrict (tambon Raharn and Wang Cha-oan).

Jaral said local authorities were limiting the traditional practice of duck raising whereby the animals were allowed to roam in vast areas. The farmers were given a grace period to change their farming methods, which will end this year.

Meanwhile, a Kanchanaburi man suspected of having contracted avian flu died while receiving treatment at a local hospital.

Hospital doctors said Bang-orn Benphad had succumbed to a lung infection triggered by common influenza. Family members said the man had become sick after butchering a large number of chickens on his farm that had apparently died of bird flu.

Bangkok-based Siriraj Hospital asked his family to be allowed to conduct an autopsy on the man’s body to determine the exact cause of his death. But the family members refused the request, saying an autopsy was unnecessary if the official cause of Bang-orn’s death was a lung infection.

Samrit Benphad, an aunt of Bang-orn, said she and other family members believed the man had died of avian flu. She said a boy in the family who died of an unknown disease in 2003 lived on the same farm and showed similar symptoms to Bang-orn’s before his death.

Meanwhile, Department of Disease Control director-general Thawat Suntharajarn said the Public Health Ministry had stockpiled 66,000 doses of Tamiflu, the medicine capable of curing avian flu in humans. Another 34,000 doses would be delivered to Thailand by next February, raising the total in stock to 100,000 doses, he said.

A further 200,000 doses of the medicine will become available in Thailand over the subsequent 15 months. The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation will produce some of the medicine if a production license can be secured by then, he said.

Tamiflu is by far the most effective medicine to deal with avian flu, Thawat said. Each course contains 10 capsules, to be taken twice daily for five subsequent days.

Agriculture Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said a master plan was being worked out to promote so-called “Safety Zone” chicken-farming procedures, which ensured farmers were not at risk of contracting the disease. The move is aimed at convincing European Union officials to lift a ban on fresh poultry products from Thailand.

The EU recently extended the ban for another year, but still accepts processed poultry products from the Kingdom.