Thailand Confirms 6 Bird Flu fatalities

Thai authorities have now officially confirmed that six people have died after contracting the H5N1 strain bird flu.

Thai authorities have now officially confirmed that six people have died after contracting the H5N1 strain bird flu.As Thailand announced that the virus had spread across vast areas of the kingdom, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has urged his nations populace to remain calm.Thailand’s epidemic has forced a cull of some 11 million chickens focused on two western provinces, but on Monday the virus was identified in eight more provinces.Channman Bounmant, the father of a six-year-old boy who died at the weekend, says the Government reacted too late.”They cover up the news when they should have told people how to protect themselves, then we would have known what to do,” he said.”No one wants to die, no one wants to get this disease.”The World Health Organisation says bird flu has the potential to be more devastating than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which claimed nearly 800 lives last year. The speed at which the flu is travelling and the number of countries now confirming its existence within their borders is cause for genuine concern.(Source: ABC Health News, Jan 2004)