Woman is new victim of bird flu
A factory worker in Thailand became Asia’s 23rd victim of bird flu today, the same day that China declared victory over the virus that has decimated the region’s poultry over the past few months.
Japan redoubled efforts against its still-simmering outbreak with new penalties for farmers who fail to report cases.
The latest victim was a 39-year-old woman who was taken ill in Thailand on March 1. The factory worker was infected by chickens at a neighbour’s house, where 20 birds had died of avian influenza, Thai officials said.
She died on Friday, becoming Thailand’s eighth human fatality, but her death was not announced until today. An additional 21 people are suspected to have been infected in Thailand.
China’s declaration that it was now free of bird flu was the latest indication that the region might be returning toward normal, although international health officials have warned it could take years to completely stamp out the virus.
Chinese officials lifted quarantines in the last of two of its 16 regions affected by the disease.
Since the outbreak emerged last December, eight Asian countries have battled a severe form of the virus that left about 100 million chickens dead from infections and government-ordered culls to contain the disease.
The virus has jumped to humans only in the two hardest-hit countries, Vietnam and Thailand, killing a total of 23 people and raising fears of a health crisis that would buffet the region’s economy more severely than last year’s SARS outbreak.
Both Vietnam and Thailand have said in the past two weeks that their outbreaks are coming under control, and bird flu’s effects on the region’s travel industry have paled compared with last year’s bout with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
