ID :
165125
Wed, 03/02/2011 - 05:31
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Hospitals along Thai-Cambodian border ordered to strictly monitor bird flu

SA KAEO, March 2 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Public Health has instructed local hospitals along the Thai-Cambodian border to strictly observe bird flu cases and local public health volunteers to join forces with the Department of Livestock Development to strictly inspect sick and dead poultry after there were two confirmed fatalities of the H5N1 avian flu in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey Province in mid February 2011.

The Thai Ministry of Public Health has also ordered officials at a key food and drug (FDA) checkpoint in Aranyaprathet District of Thailand's eastern Sa Kaeo Province bordering Banteay Meanchey to totally ban imports of raw eggs and live fowl into the country; while local people have been advised to consume only fully-cooked poultry and to immediately report to local health or livestock officials, or their community leaders, if they find sick or dead poultry in their respective areas.

Thai Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Paijit Warachit said that his ministry's instructions include strict screenings and check-ups of all patients who have medical records of inflamed or infected lungs to see whether they previously contacted with poultry.

The senior Thai Public Health Ministry acknowledged that his ministry has maintained its highly-alert measures against bird flu although there have been no confirmed human victims of the avian flu in Thailand since 2006. Dr. Paijit also recommended local people to wash their hands frequently and to go to see doctors if they suffer from flu-like symptoms, namely high fever, headache and couch, and do not recover within two days.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said in its updated report that there have been nine confirmed cases of bird flu patients worldwide since the beginning of this year, four of them have died, three in Cambodia and the other one in Egypt, and that there have been 525 confirmed bird flu patients worldwide since 2006, 310 of them have died in 15 countries. (TNA)

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