Bird flu found in Britain, Croatia
(AFP/Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-22 09:08

As Europeans grappled with the flare-up of bird flu cases on their continent, China pledged to step up cooperation in an increasingly fierce global battle to contain the disease as Thailand said a boy had been infected with the virus, which killed his father.

The United Nations' bird flu envoy flew into China Friday where more than 91,000 birds have been destroyed to stamp out a new outbreak.

"The international community needs to cooperate fully to protect the health of the world's people," Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang told UN envoy David Nabarro.

"The Chinese health ministry is willing to strengthen cooperation and communication with the United Nations and the World Health Organisation," Gao said.

In Thailand, doctors reported the seven-year-old son of a Thai farmer who died of bird flu two days earlier had also contracted the disease, but they said the virus had not mutated and still cannot pass easily among humans.

A scientist isolates influenza virus cells at the World Health Organization National Influenza Center in Bangkok on October 21, 2005.[Reuters]

The 48-year-old farmer -- the 61st human victim of the virus worldwide since late 2003 -- died after slaughtering and eating a sick chicken.

"In this case the boy may have contracted the disease from the area where the chicken was dying. The boy had close contact with the virus (from being around sick chickens) and possibly from handling the birds' excrement," Siriraj Hospital director Prasit Watanapa said.

Doctors said the boy was expected to recover but would remain in hospital for observation for three weeks. In the boy's village, health workers sprayed disinfectant and neighbors lined up for medical checks.

In Romania, officials said a suspected new case of bird flu had been detected in the northeast of the country, only hours after assurances that the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus had been contained to two locations in the southeast.

"The H5 bird flu virus has been found in a heron near the border with Moldova, on the Prut river," the minister, Gheorghe Flutur, told the Medifax news agency. He too said further tests would be carried out by a British laboratory to see if it was of the Asian strain of H5N1.

Even as governments tried to calm people, fear spread.

Spaniards were rushing to chemists and buying up traditional flu vaccines amid grave concern about a bird flu pandemic although doctors said the traditional vaccine offers no protection against the avian form of the virus.

Stocks of flu vaccines in chemists "are being exhausted," the Spanish general public health administration said.

In France, a national federation of supermarket chains said sales of poultry had dropped 20 percent in five days.

The World Health Organization (WTO) warned against "scaremongering" but it also said each additional human case was making it easier to develop human-to-human transmission.

"While neither the timing nor the severity of the next pandemic can be predicted, the probability that a pandemic will occur has increased," it said.

The European Commission has formally banned imports of pet birds and feathers from nearly all Russian territory in an emergency procedure after the discovery of the disease south of Moscow this week.

The Czech Ministry of Agriculture announced a ban on the sale of chickens in markets and exhibitions or sale of other birds in public places.

Norway ordered all poultry in the south of the country to be placed indoors to prevent contact with wild birds. Switzerland issued a similar order for the entire country.

Ukraine's parliament slapped a six-month ban on imports of poultry. Nepal banned imports of European poultry. Bangladesh formed a bird flu taskforce.

Migratory birds believed to be carriers may next take the virus to Africa, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said this week, warning that the continent would be an "ideal breeding ground" because of close contact between people and animals.

Scientists have said east African Rift Valley countries Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Uganda, were particularly threatened as they host millions of migratory fowl that fly to warmer climes during the European winter.

On the other side of the continent, Senegal -- which has west Africa's largest bird sanctuaries -- asked people to take any poultry found dead to the nearest vet for inspection.

Australia said it was considering banning all live bird imports after three racing pigeons certified healthy by Canadian officials tested positive for avian flu antibodies.

In Washington the US Senate directed the Transportation Department to take proper precautions to deal with the possibility of an airline passenger flying into the United States infected with the virus.