Millions of volunteers led by emergency teams fanned out across Thailand yesterday in a new drive to fight bird flu after the prime minister gave officials 30 days to eradicate the epidemic.
Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsutin said Thailand's offensive against the disease "begins from this minute," while international health experts warned that hopes to stamp out the disease in one month were unrealistic.
Thailand went on high alert Tuesday when it reported that its latest bird flu victim died after likely contracting the virus from her daughter in the first probable case of human-to-human transmission.
Ten people have died of bird flu in Thailand and 20 in Vietnam while more than 100 million chickens and poultry have died or been culled to stop its spread since a severe strain of the virus spread across large swaths of Asia early this year.
Somsak told reporters that livestock officials are directing "millions of volunteers and officials ... to X-ray every spot nationwide, to cull the sick chickens and properly bury them. "We will do our best to eliminate the bird flu from our country."
He said Thailand had faced setbacks in fighting bird flu, or avian influenza, blaming rural villagers for ignoring government rules that require them to inform officials when they have found dead chickens and provide complete health records when they enter hospitals.
"When a small number of chickens die, people think, 'never mind' and keep the information to themselves," Somsak said. "But from now on, volunteers will go into every village and report every single case to officials."
The anti-bird flu drive began after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared a national war against the disease at an emergency meeting of 76 provincial governors on Wednesday.
He gave ministers until the end of this month, before the cool season sets in, to wipe out the disease or face the sack. People are more vulnerable to viruses during the cooler months, and migratory birds believed to spread the illness also arrive then.
But Dr. Kumara Rai, the acting Thailand representative of the WHO, said "eradicating the virus in one month, I'm sorry to say, is almost impossible."
Thai officials on Tuesday confirmed that a 26-year-old woman, Pranee Sodchuen, died of bird flu on Sept. 20, probably after catching it while taking care of her daughter.
The 11-year-old, who is believed to have been ill with the disease, died Sept. 12 but was cremated before tests to confirm the disease could be conducted.
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