After days of denying it had a problem, Thailand became the latest flashpoint in the bird flu crisis with claims yesterday that a village boy is infected, while the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the fast-spreading virus could mutate into a form deadlier to humans.
Bird flu has killed five people in Vietnam and infected millions of chickens across Asia. So far, fowl are believed to have directly infected people, but scientists worry about the possibility of human-to-human transmission.
"The more widespread it becomes, the greater the possibility that the virus could become altered and become more of a threat to the human population," said WHO spokesman Bob Dietz in Hanoi.
In Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra denied claims that the country's first bird flu case in humans had been confirmed by a laboratory.
But a Thai senator, Nirun Phitakwatchara, accused officials of covering up "for political and business reasons" the case of a boy in central Suphanburi province, whom, he said, tested positive for the disease.
Another senator, Wallop Thangananurak, warned against any cover-up if Thailand does have bird flu.
"For example, the Chinese tried to cover up the SARS outbreak last year, which had consequences and pressure from the world community," he said. "So the Thai government should not do like the Chinese did on SARS. It's the government's job to inform the public without making them panic."
Thailand is among the world's top five poultry exporters and has repeatedly insisted that it has not been hit by bird flu, saying that the 6 million chickens that have died or been destroyed in central Thailand were infected with bird cholera and other respiratory diseases.
Japan, though, announced a ban on Thai chicken meat imports yesterday as a precaution.
The sick boy is one of three people being tested for bird flu in Thailand.
The WHO has expressed alarm over the spread of the flu that has attacked millions of chickens throughout Vietnam, Japan, and South Korea, as jittery governments in Asia struggled with ways to contain the disease.
"There is growing concern about the situation as we've seen reports of increasing H5N1 infections in poultry," Dietz said.
Health officials believe that the disease is contracted through contact with sick birds. Eating properly cooked meat and eggs is not believed to pose a health risk. So far, there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission.
Showcasing phallus-shaped portable shrines and pink penis candies, Japan’s annual fertility festival yesterday teemed with tourists, couples and families elated by its open display of sex. The spring Kanamara Matsuri near Tokyo features colorfully dressed worshipers carrying a trio of giant phallic-shaped objects as they parade through the street with glee. The festival, as legend has it, honors a local blacksmith in the Edo Period (1603-1868) who forged an iron dildo to break the teeth of a sharp-toothed demon inhabiting a woman’s vagina that had been castrating young men on their wedding nights. A 1m black steel phallus sits in the courtyard of
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
RSS