Thailand Confirms 20th Flu Case

(CBS/AP)  A woman in a northern suburb of the Thai capital of Bangkok has been diagnosed with bird flu, Deputy Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said Monday.

The 50-year-old woman, who is recovering in Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital, is the country's 20th human victim of the disease since 2003, and the third this year. Thirteen of those infected by the virus died.

The woman fell ill a day after helping clean excrement from a chicken coop in Nonthaburi province's Buathong district, said Thawat Suntarajarn, director-general of Thailand's Department of Communicable Disease Control. Laboratory results a week later confirmed that she had the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu, he told The Associated Press.

Thailand's first human cases this year were reported in October in the western province of Kanchanaburi. One was a 48-year-old man who died after handling his neighbors' sick chickens, and the other was his 7-year-old son, who also contracted the disease after handling the birds, but is recovering after being treated with anti-viral medicine.

In related developments:

On Oct. 28, Chinese and Thai officials called for measures to prevent an outbreak that they warned could infect millions of people. In China, officials went on television to try to reassure the public, saying they were capable of stopping the virus. They said human cases would be quarantined and warned that anyone who tries to hide and outbreak would be punished.

A second manufacturer is beginning mass production of a vaccine to protect against bird flu, and the Senate moved Thursday to invest far more, $8 billion, on preparations in case the influenza strain ever sparks a worldwide epidemic. Before the Senate acted, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt awarded a $62.5 million contract to Emeryville, Calif.-based Chiron Corp. to manufacture bird flu vaccine for a national stockpile. A competitor, Sanofi-Aventis of Paris, began manufacturing $100 million worth of a similar vaccine last month.

In Indonesia, authorities were testing chickens that died last week on Bali. Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono warned that the virus could spread quickly through the densely populated archipelago since wild pigeons and other birds already were infected. "The condition (of bird flu) is critical because it has been found to have infected pigeons," he said. "We can all imagine how long and how far pigeons can fly." Bird flu has killed four people and sickened three others in Indonesia so far this year.

France's Health Ministry said it could not confirm the Thai statement, but tests in France made public Thursday showed that one of the tourists was free of bird flu.

Australia's health minister warned that his nation might have to close its borders in the event of a human epidemic, while a Hong Kong lawmaker suggested arming the public to shoot migratory birds. Health Minister Tony Abbott said the island continent of 20 million people would shut itself off from the rest of the world if a human flu pandemic breaks out. "The best way of ensuring that you don't get infected with something like this, in the absence of an effective vaccine, would be isolation," Abbott told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

In Hong Kong, lawmaker Tommy Cheung proposed allowing the public to carry guns and shoot migratory birds suspected of carrying the virus. "Perhaps what we should do is give each person a gun," said Cheung, who has a reputation for making unusual proposals, "and when we see a migrating bird, we can just shoot it down, so Hong Kong would be a much safer place."

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