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.
PHOTO: AP
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.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
ANTI-SEMITISM: Some newsletters promote hateful ideas such as white supremacy and Holocaust denial, with one describing Adolf Hitler as ‘one of the greatest men of all time’ The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and anti-Semitism, a Guardian investigation has found. The platform, which says it has about 50 million users worldwide, allows members of the public to self-publish articles and charge for premium content. Substack takes about 10 percent of the revenue the newsletters make. About 5 million people pay for access to newsletters on its platform. Among them are newsletters that openly promote racist ideology. One, called NatSocToday, which has 2,800 subscribers, charges US$80 for an annual subscription, although most of its posts are available
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
SHIFTING BLAME: Near the end of the one-minute-long video, the Obamas were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second US President Donald Trump on Friday refused to apologize for a video posted on his social media account depicting former US president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as monkeys, although he said he condemned the post as the White House shifted the blame to staff. The video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account late on Thursday night sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member. “I didn’t make a mistake,” Trump said on Air Force One late on
RSS