Suspected bird flu victim dies
02-OCT-2008 Intellasia | Bangkok Post
Oct 2, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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A worker on a free-range duck farm died from bird flu-like symptoms in Pho Prathap Chang district yesterday, and health authorities put his 12-year-old son under close observation for signs of infection with the virus. Manee Mankhetkit, 48, was taken to the provincial hospital on Monday after he developed a high fever, suffered from a cough, sore throat, chest pains and breathing difficulties.
The man was treated in an isolated intensive care ward because he had come into contact with fowls. He was a hired hand at a duck farm which has more than 1,600 birds. Doctors pronounced him dead due to kidney and heart failure.
His 12-year-old son Sakda, who worked alongside his father, was taken to Phichit hospital yesterday. He too was put in an isolation ward for observation, and no visitors were allowed to see him.
Livestock officials have collected samples from the free-range ducks, which have being dying in big numbers over the past week, for testing for the bird flu virus.
Public health permanent-secretary Prat Boonyawongwirot said lab tests were being made on samples collected from the dead man's body to see whether he was infected with the deadly H5N1 virus as believed.
The results were expected to be released today.
Dr Prat said leptospirosis could also not be ruled out as a possible cause of death as the area was affected by floods.
There were reports of poultry, particularly free-range ducks, dying en masse in the district during the past week.
Although an avian flu outbreak has never occurred in the district, Phichit was listed as an avian influenza epidemic zone, he said.
Kamnuan Ungchusak, director of the epidemiology bureau, said a team of epidemiologists had been dispatched to the district for bird flu surveillance.
Disinfectant would be sprayed at all poultry farms, slaughterhouses and at-risk areas.
Thailand faced its fifth bird flu outbreak in early February when the disease re-emerged in Nakhon Sawan and Phichit.
The first outbreak struck the country in January 2004 when more than 60 million fowls were culled. A total of 25 people have been infected by the virus since then, with 17 of them dying of the disease.
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