Thai leader orders campaign to wipe out bird flu

Thailand's prime minister ordered a campaign to wipe out the bird flu virus by the end of October on Wednesday, a day after the country announced its first probable case of human transmission.

While there was no evidence to suggest the case could set off a human pandemic, it spurred the government into frenzied efforts to stamp out the H5N1 virus that has killed 20 people in Vietnam and 10 in Thailand this year.

"By October 31st, we must be able to declare there is no more bird flu in Thailand," Thaksin Shinawatra told the provincial governors he summoned to an emergency meeting from around the country.

"It must be physically wiped out" by then, when the hot, humid monsoon season is due to give way to the cooler weather that draws migratory wildfowl thought to spread the virus.

He ordered the governors to conduct a chicken census of every household in the country, assume every dead fowl was killed by bird flu and to cull ruthlessly where ever the H5N1 virus was found.

Thaksin, a flamboyant former telecoms tycoon who likens his rule to that of a chief executive officer, said all ministers responsible for bird flu would be sacked if the campaign failed.

But Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang said Thailand, a leading chicken exporter before the disease hit, was in for a long battle to wipe out the virus.

"We are talking at least three to five years," he said after an earlier emergency meeting of agriculture and health officials. "There are no fences along borders of countries in Asia to block migrating birds," Chaturon told a Bangkok radio station.

"As long as the disease persists in China, Vietnam and Malaysia, Thailand won't be able to get rid of bird flu and vice versa."

Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said she had ordered public health volunteers in every village to help reinforce the surveillance system of agriculture officials.

"For safety's sake, people need to take extra precautions to protect themselves," she told reporters.

"Even if just one chicken dies, villagers must protect themselves with gloves or plastic bags to destroy the carcass. If the death is suspicious, they must inform local livestock officials immediately."

DRIVEN BY DEATH

The furor was provoked by the death of 11-year-old Sakuntala Prempasee, who, according to the English-language Nation newspaper, died in the arms of her mother, coughing blood.

The girl was cremated and there is no proof yet that she died of the H5N1 virus. Tests on samples taken from the girl before she died are being conducted. Her mother, Pranee, went back to work 220 miles away near Bangkok. She died days later.

On Tuesday, the government confirmed Pranee died of bird flu and said an aunt with whom Sakuntala lived was recovering from it.