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This report, from The Nation, reveals new details on the young girl from Laos who has been confirmed to have contracted the H5N1 virus, including a call for surveillance in Laos.
Her doctors put her chances of survival between 10%-20%, and this report intimates that there are two other suspected cases.
For those unfamiliar with Thai currency, the costs referred to in this article are in Thai Baht. The 80,000 Baht daily cost of her care equals roughly $2350 U.S. ($1 US dollar = 34 Baht).
Lao girl, 16, critical with bird-flu virus
Test results have found that a 16-year-old Lao girl in Nong Khai Hospital has the deadly H5N1 virus.
Nong Khai public-health chief Dr Itthipol Sungkhaeng yesterday revealed the patient - transferred earlier this month to a Thai hospital in accordance with a Thai-Lao memorandum of understanding on bird-flu cooperation - was diagnosed with bird flu and that her condition was critical.
With a patient's chance of surviving bird flu rated at 10-20 per cent, doctors vowed to treat her the best they could, he said.
Itthipol has also instructed Nong Khai border hospitals that any Lao patients admitted with fever, cough, shortness of breath and a history of contact with birds should be isolated and treated, to prevent the disease from spreading, and to report them to the provincial Public Health Office.
Meanwhile, Disease Control Department director-general Dr Thawat Suntrajarn said the Lao girl came from the Sri Rattana community, a Vientiane suburb that was within a 1-kilometre radius of a previous bird-flu outbreak.
The girl fell ill on February 10 and was admitted to a Vientiane hospital before her mother decided to send her to a private Thai hospital on February 17.
On February 20, Lao authorities confirmed the girl lived in the outbreak area and that her condition had deteriorated. She was then transferred to Nong Khai Hospital.
Thawat said the Thai Public Health Ministry would cover the girl's medical expenses at Nong Khai Hospital of about Bt80,000 a day. Total costs have reached Bt800,000 so far. Even though she is not a Thai, the case will be useful for clinical and disease-control study of the fatal virus, he said.
Thawat said the Thai team sent to assist Lao authorities found 11 people had a history of contact with birds and that three - including the girl - were suspected of having the bird-flu virus.
