China yesterday reported its eighth outbreak of bird flu in less than a month, as a report in Japan raised concerns about the side effects of Tamiflu, one of the few drugs believed to be effective in treating the flu.
Thai authorities, meanwhile, rushed to investigate the first confirmed human infection in the capital, Bangkok.
China's latest outbreak, which killed 2,500 birds, occurred in two villages in Jingshan County, part of Hubei Province in the country's vast rural interior, the agriculture ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
Bird culls
Health officials culled more than 31,300 birds on farms within a radius of 3km from the outbreak, according to the ministry.
Hubei is squeezed in between Anhui and Hunan, two other provinces where avian flu has been confirmed since last month, when the virus suddenly returned to China after a lengthy lull.
China has so far not reported a single confirmed human case of bird flu, although official fears are mounting that people might have been infected.
chicken farmer Tested
Health and agricultural departments in the northeastern province of Liaoning said on Friday that a female chicken farmer was undergoing further tests to determine whether she had bird flu, making her the fourth suspected human case in China.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said its knowledge of the Liaoning case was limited to media reports and information on the health ministry's Web site.
"That's all the information we have right now," said Roy Wadia, a Beijing-based WHO spokesman. "We're certainly keeping an eye on it through the information provided by the Ministry of Health."
The details of the three other suspected cases -- including a 12-year-old girl who died -- were being investigated yesterday by WHO experts working with Chinese officials, he said.
Tamiflu concerns
The Japanese Health Ministry, meanwhile, has warned that the anti-flu drug Tamiflu can induce strange behavior leading to accidental death, after two teenagers died shortly after taking the medicine, news reports said yesterday.
A 17-year-old high school student from central Gifu Prefecture jumped in front of a truck in February last year shortly after taking the medicine, while a middle school student in neighboring Aichi Prefecture is believed to have fallen from the ninth floor of his apartment building this February, the Mainichi newspaper and Kyodo News agency reported.
The drug's Japanese distributor, Chugai Pharmaceutical, issued a report to the Health Ministry after the first incident, saying a link between taking the drug and the odd behavior that led to the death cannot be ruled out, Mainichi said.
The ministry is aware of one of the cases and is warning that taking the drug may lead to abnormal behavior and accidental death, Kyodo News agency said, citing an unidentified ministry official.
While Tamiflu carries a label in Japan warning of such side effects as "abnormal behavior" and "hallucinations," the cases are the country's first in which strange behavior linked to the drug has resulted in deaths, the Mainichi said.
Ministry officials were unavailable for comment early yesterday.
Bangkok case
In Thailand, authorities yesterday rushed to investigate the home of an 18-month-old boy who was diagnosed with bird flu, in the first case of the disease found in the capital Bangkok.
The house where the boy contracted the virus had two chickens and one fighting cock, which died on Oct. 31, but were only reported to authorities after the boy fell sick, officials said.
The public health ministry said the boy fell ill on Nov. 1 and went to hospital on Nov. 3 with a runny nose, fever and coughing. The boy's 65-year-old grandmother has also shown symptoms of the disease, but so far has tested negative. Doctors were awaiting the results of further tests, expected by today.
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