Apr 11, 2013
Bernama
BANGKOK: Thailand has stocked up some four million doses of antiviral
drugs, as part of the Ministry of Public Health's high alert against
deadly bird flu of all strains, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.
Public Health Minister Dr. Pradit Sinthawanarong
told reporters that his ministry has also closely coordinated with
experts of the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives' Department
of Livestocks Development, the Geneva-based World Health Organisation
(WHO) and Thailand MOPH-US CDC Collaboration (TUC) to monitor the
updated situation although there have been no bird flu cases reported in
Thailand for over seven years.
Dr. Pradit acknowledged that his
ministry's moves are in response to latest reports that current
outbreaks of the new deadly H7N9 avian flu in China have killed three
more people, while the H5N1 strain has re-emerged in neighbouring
Cambodia and Vietnam, with eight fatalities in Cambodia alone so far.
Dr. Pradit said there has been no evidence that both the H7N9 and the
H5N1 avian influenza of the A-strain, spreading in China, Vietnam and
Cambodia, has been spread from human to human, insisting that two
antiviral drugs, including oseltamivir and zanamivir, remain effective
for bird flu patients.
According to updated reports, there have
been three more H7N9 fatalities in China, bringing the death toll from
the H7N9 virus in the country to nine, from a total of 21 patients so
far.
Vietnam, meanwhile, has recorded one H5N1 patient, a four
year-old boy, while the same viral strain has killed eight people in
Cambodia lately.
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