# 867
Right now, these are all suspected cases, and none have been verified as having the H5N1 virus. Their isolation may be nothing more than an exercise in an abundance of caution.
Most of these appear to be low probability cases.
Eleven Malaysians being checked for bird flu
(AFP)
9 June 2007KUALA LUMPUR - A total of eleven Malaysians were under observation in hospital Saturday as officials denied there was a second outbreak of bird flu in the country.
The latest suffering ill health are two young boys, who were diagnosed with high fevers in northern Kedah state after playing with chickens which later died in their village, said Zainuddin Wahab, the health ministry’s deputy director for disease control.
However no H5N1 virus has been found among the latest birds that died, he said.
“In the first place, the veterinary department confirmed that there was no bird flu detected among the dead chickens in the village there, so the source of the infection is not H5N1. It’s definitely not bird flu,” Zainuddin said.
Officials on Saturday said all of those hospitalised are in stable condition and did not show symptoms of being infected by the virulent H5N1 virus.
Five others aged between 11 months and 35 years, who were hospitalised Friday are also stable. All live within 300 metres (328 yards) of the Wednesday outbreak — Malaysia’s first in more than a year — on the outskirts of the capital.
Health officials have conducted checks on 476 houses and 3,204 residents of Sungai Buloh and a neighbouring village where 60 chickens have died of the H5N1 strain, in central Selangor state.
