WATCHING THAILAND
Both of my readers are aware that I’ve been watching Thailand carefully for the past couple of weeks. Things there appear to be much worse than originally advertised. Poultry deaths hidden for a couple of months, and reports of illness which have been denied up until this week. Now, we know there are at least 44 suspected human cases of H5N1 infection.
Special medical team to treat bird flu cases
UDON THANI, July 28 (TNA) - Thailand's Public Health Ministry Friday set up a special medical team to diagnose and prescribe treatment for new patients suspected of having caught the deadly bird flu virus, of which the number has been pushed to 44 nationwide.
Public Health Minister Pinij Jarusombat, visiting the northeastern Udon Thani Province on Friday, said the 44 bird flu suspects awaiting laboratory test results include 11 in Phichit and 10 in Sukhothai Province--both in the North--seven in the central Suphanburi Province and the rest are in other provinces in the North and Northeast.
The minister said he had signed the order to set up a special team of doctors to evaluate each patient and consider specialised medical treatments, including deciding which patient will be prescribed tamilflu -- in the circumstance that some patients may have a resistance to that drug.
http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=23663
And this, today from Reuters . . .
Thailand for faster Tamiflu use to fight bird flu
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Thailand, which saw its first human death from bird flu after an eight-month lull, will push for the use of the drug Tamiflu in suspected cases rather than wait for lab results, a Thai official said on Friday.
The proposal, which follows the death of a 17-year-old boy this week, would apply to seven provinces where the H5N1 virus is endemic, said Thawat Suntrajarn, Director-General of Thailand's Department of Disease Control.
"We have to revise our clinical practice guidelines and the criteria to start Tamiflu," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an Asian bird flu conference in New Delhi.
Clearly, things are heating up in Thailand. And today we are hearing of a confirmed poultry outbreak in neighboring Laos.
For months, Thailand has insisted they had eradicated bird flu.
Obviously rumors of its demise were premature.
