Japan on bird flu alert as infections hit Asia

JAPAN: Japan said yesterday it could be afflicted by its first outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain in more than three years…

JAPAN:Japan said yesterday it could be afflicted by its first outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain in more than three years, as the disease killed an Indonesian woman and spread closer to Vietnam's largest city.

An official at a Jakarta hospital said yesterday that a woman had died of bird flu and four other people were being treated for symptoms of the H5N1 virus, which many scientists fear could mutate and trigger the next global flu pandemic.

The dead woman's husband and son were among those in hospital with suspected cases of infection but there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, a senior health official said.

The past week has seen a flare-up of infections, echoing past winters, the season when the virus appears to thrive.

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About 2,400 chickens died on a farm in the Miyazaki area of southwestern Japan in the past three days, an outbreak that, if confirmed as H5N1 bird flu virus, would be the first in Japan since 2004. There were no reports of human infections.

Masayuki Kunii, senior vice- minister at Japan's agriculture ministry, said yesterday: "It's not confirmed at this point that it's the highly virulent influenza, but the chances remain very high."

Results of a simple preliminary test for the bird flu virus were positive, but agricultural officials said it might take several days to determine the exact strain of the virus.

Tests could show as early as tomorrow whether the strain is the H5 or H7 subtype, but more time was needed to see whether it was the virulent H5N1 or less virulent H5N2 that was present.

If a bird flu outbreak is confirmed at the farm, located in Miyazaki on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, all of the more than 12,000 birds there would be culled.

The farm has been placed under quarantine.

In Indonesia, two women in their 20s are also being treated for bird flu symptoms. Tests have confirmed one of the patients, aged 22, is infected with the virus.

Muchtar Ichsan, head of the bird flu ward at Jakarta's Persahabatan hospital, said the women - one from Tangerang west of Jakarta and the other from a south Jakarta suburb - were in critical condition and had been placed on a respirator.

The 22-year-old woman had a history of contact with chickens but it was not clear if the other woman, who was four years older, had had contact with sick birds, Mr Ichsan said.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, head of the national commission on avian influenza, said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus in the latest suspected and confirmed cases.

He also believed Indonesia was making progress fighting the virus, but added: "The danger is still there and the nature of this virus is random," he said.

Since late 2003, when the H5N1 virus re-emerged in Asia, bird flu has killed 158 people worldwide. Indonesia, with 59 deaths, has the highest human toll of any nation.

In Vietnam, a government report said bird flu in poultry had moved closer to Ho Chi Minh City, the nation's largest urban area, after an outbreak was confirmed in a fifth province.

The agriculture ministry report said tests done after 20 chickens were found dead on a farm in Vinh Long province 137 km (85 miles) southwest of the city had confirmed the virus.

Vietnam has had no human H5N1 cases since November 2005 but the virus re-emerged last month in Mekong delta poultry. Bird flu killed 42 of the 93 people infected from 2003-2005 in Vietnam.

H5N1 has spread across much of Asia, into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In Egypt, a man died of bird flu last month just days after a girl died of the disease.

Migrating birds and poultry smuggling are believed to be some of the ways the virus has spread.

Veterinary officials in white protective suits and masks culled thousands of chickens at a farm in the far northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto after bird flu was detected there for the first time.

The detection of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in Sokoto means the disease is or has been present in 17 of Nigeria's 36 states and in the Federal Capital Territory.