Bird flu virus has been found in two boys at separate hospitals in central Thailand and in chickens, officials said yesterday, reversing days of vehement denials that the country was facing in outbreak of the disease.
"Two cases of bird flu have been confirmed in one boy in Suphanburi and one boy in Kanchanaburi province," Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphun told reporters.
The country's agriculture minister also confirmed that chickens in Suphanburi province tested positive for the disease, which also has ravaged chicken populations in South Korea, Japan and in Vietnam, where it also jumped to humans, killing five.
Farmers had alleged for more than a week that millions of chickens were dying of bird flu and that the government was engaged in a massive cover-up to protect lucrative chicken exports. But officials maintained until yesterday that the chickens were suffering from fowl cholera -- which they said posed no danger to people.
As signs of an outbreak in Thailand mounted, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said early yesterday that lab results would likely confirm the suspicions of a bird flu outbreak.
Shares in major Thai chicken producers plunged yesterday, a day after Japan suspended all imports of Thai chicken meat.
The health minister said that the two patients confirmed to have bird flu lived near poultry farms where chickens had died, and allegedly touched the carcasses of dead birds.
Tests on a third person suspected of being infected with the virus in central Nakhon Sawan province had turned out negative, she said. Two other suspected cases are under surveillance, Sudarat said.
Earlier, Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob said the virus had been discovered in chickens in Suphanburi province. The results came after officials collected and tested samples from more than 100,000 chickens nationwide.
A high-profile senator raised alarms about bird flu in Thailand on Thursday when he claimed that a seriously ill boy was confirmed as its first human case. Thaksin said at the time that it would be days before lab tests could show whether the child was a victim of the virus.
For days, Thaksin's government had dismissed claims by farmers that bird flu had infiltrated Thailand, though millions of chickens have dropped dead or been culled in recent weeks. The health minister denied any cover-up.
Politicians outside the government urged it to be forthcoming, saying Thailand should not follow the example of China, which disastrously tried to hide details about SARS, leading to a global health crisis last year.
Worried by the confusion, Japan -- a major market -- announced an immediate ban on Thai chicken imports on Thursday. Thailand is among the world's top five poultry exporters.
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