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Thai PM admits keeping silent on fears of outbreak

A vaccine for the bird flu rampaging through Asia is more than six months away, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman predicted yesterday, as hard-hit Thailand enlisted hundreds of soldiers to help battle the disease by slaughtering hundreds of thousands of chickens.

Faced with accusations that he covered up the outbreak, Thailand's prime minister said his government had suspected that bird flu had struck his nation a "couple of weeks" ago. But he didn't tell the public because he feared mass panic.

Vietnam and Thailand are the only countries this year where humans have caught the avian flu, with six confirmed deaths in Vietnam and one suspected fatality in Thailand. The virus has affected millions of chickens in six Asian nations and has put the entire region -- already worried about SARS -- on a health alert.

Recently the WHO raised hopes that a prototype bird flu vaccine would be ready in four weeks' time. But the UN health agency said on its Web site yesterday its fears that the virus would mutate had come true, slowing up work on a vaccine.

"I don't think we're looking at a workable vaccine within six months. That's too late for the influenza season in Asia but it would be available," Peter Cordingley, the WHO spokesman for the region, told a reporter in Manila, the Philippines.

"It could be available for next winter's flu season ... It's not promising this year," he added.

Human victims have been infected directly from chickens. But scientists fear that the disease might combine with a regular human influenza virus, making person-to-person infection possible. This then could trigger a new human flu pandemic -- worse that last year's SARS outbreak that killed more than 700 people.

The WHO has said the strains of bird flu seen this year, in both humans and chickens, have mutated, indicating how adaptable the virus is. Still, no person-to-person transmissions have been reported yet.

Governments in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have ordered mass chicken culls to combat the spread of the virus.

Hundreds of Thai soldiers in protective gear were being bused into hardest-hit Suphanburi province to assist in the chicken slaughter.

The outbreak has ravaged Thailand's chicken export industry, particularly small poultry farmers.

Thaksin was visiting Suphanburi to meet with hundreds of angry chicken farmers, many alleging his government knew that bird flu had emerged but attempted a cover up to protect the industry. Until Friday, the government had insisted that the birds were sick with other diseases.

Yesterday, Thaksin acknowledged that officials suspected a bird flu outbreak for some time.

"We have suspected this [bird flu outbreak] for about a couple of weeks," Thaksin said.

Asked why he failed to inform the public of the government's concerns, he said: "At that time, when it's not bird flu, how can you tell them it's bird flu?"
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