Two more Malaysians hospitalised for bird flu checks - 11 June 2007

Two more Malaysians hospitalised for bird flu checks

KUALA LUMPUR : Two more Malaysians were hospitalised on Sunday for possible exposure to bird flu, as authorities tried to quell fears that the first outbreak of the virus in more than a year might not be isolated.

One was a 31-year-old health worker from central Selangor state, where the outbreak was first reported last week, the state Bernama news agency quoted Health Minister Chua Soi Lek as saying.

Both he and a 16-year-old boy from eastern Terengganu state had flu-like symptoms including high fevers and coughs, the minister said, adding that the teen had had "contact with chicken and ducks that he reared which had died."

Chua said officials from the Terengganu state veterinary department had taken samples from the dead birds in the teen's village. Results were to be revealed on Monday.

Last week, bird flu resurfaced in Malaysia for the first time in more than a year, in the Sungai Buloh area of Selangor state on the western outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Eleven people were hospitalised with flu-like symptoms after being exposed to dead chickens in the Sungai Buloh area and in a village in northern Kedah state, but all tested negative for the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

Health officials said on Sunday they had nearly completed the culling of thousands of birds in Selangor state, but were still investigating the source of the outbreak.

"It could be a case of illegal entry of infected birds" from Indonesia and other neighbouring countries, said Kamarudin Mohammed Isa, head of disease control at the local Department of Veterinary Services.

Malaysia reported outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in February 2006 when it appeared in free-range chickens near Kuala Lumpur, triggering the slaughter of tens of thousands of birds.

There were no human cases.

Five other outbreaks followed elsewhere but the country declared itself free of bird flu in June.

H5N1 has killed nearly 190 people and ravaged poultry flocks worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.