Avian Flu

Whether in Bangkok or in Beijing, many people in the Mekong region find avian flu something far removed from their everyday lives. Yet the signs are all around, as the disease, which affects animals and humans, continues to spread in the region.

BANGKOK, Dec 21 (IPS) - New cases of avian influenza across Asia in recent weeks confirm warnings that the deadly virus still lurks in the region and raise questions of gaps in efforts to contain it in affected communities.

MANILA, Oct 8 (IPS) - So where is the pandemic? This is a question most often asked of health experts years after they warned about a pandemic influenza that could infect up to 35 percent of the world's population.

BANGKOK (Newsmekong) - Livestock officials have been instructed to carry out extensive checks on poultry farms across Thailand and rehearse precautions to safeguard against avian influenza amid fears the disease could make a comeback during the monsoon season.

VIENTIANE (Newsmekong/IPS) -Avian flu poses a mix of challenges for a Least Developing Country like Laos, which also to watch transboundary movement of fowl with the four countries it shares borders with, according to Dr Bounkhouang Khambounheuang, Director General of the Livestock and Fisheries Department of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Vientiane, Laos. He is also with the National Committee for Communicable Disease Control, the body responsible for overseeing efforts at controlling avian flu.

CAN THO, Vietnam, Jun 30 (Newsmekong) - The bustling city of Can Tho is the capital of southern Vietnam’s fertile Mekong Delta and one of the country’s two main rice baskets.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Jun 3 (Newsmekong) - Vietnamese researchers have announced significant progress in their effort to develop a prototype vaccine for the H5N1 avian influenza, despite criticism from some scientists that their methods are “unorthodox”.

VIENTIANE, Jun 1 (Newsmekong) - An outbreak of avian flu in northern Laos earlier this year has demonstrated that despite the government’s ongoing vigilance, this South-east Asian country faces a continuing threat from the disease.

 

KANCHANABURI, Thailand - Mornings at Don Ngiew, a village in Phanom Thuan district in this western province, are eerily silent these days. The clucking of chickens that used to wake farmers up, signalling the start of another day at the rice fields, has been replaced by the mechanical whirr of alarm clocks.

 

The first outbreak of avian flu in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in early 2004 struck 45 poultry farms throughout the country, 38 of which were in and around the capital of Vientiane. The outbreak resulted in the loss of 155,000 birds, a third of which were infected by the disease.