Asian countries free of bird flu were poised to crack down at the slightest sign of trouble yesterday, with Hong Kong isolating a woman who returned from Vietnam with suspicious pneumonia symptoms and Singapore intensifying a campaign to cull crows.
The scavengers are considered potential spreaders of the disease, because they could pick up the flu from dead birds.
Hong Kong and Singapore were hit hard by SARS last year and both are on high alert to prevent an outbreak of bird flu, which has killed 10 people in as many Asian countries.
PHOTO: AFP
Tens of millions of chickens and ducks have died across the region -- from the disease or in government-ordered slaughters aimed at containing it. The virus has jumped to humans in Thailand, where two people have died, and Vietnam, which has had eight fatalities.
A day after saying it had no such plans, Indonesia ordered mass culls of infected chickens. And Thailand, which for weeks claimed to be bird-flu free, said the disease was spreading rapidly across its countryside.
Fears that infected people could travel internationally, spreading the virus across borders like with SARS, prompted Hong Kong authorities to isolate a 75-year-old woman, sick with flu-like symptoms, after she returned from hard-hit Vietnam.
She is being tested for avian influenza, SARS and other diseases and results were expected late yesterday, Hospital Authority spokesman Cheng Kwong-ying said.
The World Health Organization insists the mass slaughter of infected poultry is key to controlling the outbreak, but health ministers from 13 infected or threatened countries emerged from an emergency meeting in Bangkok on Wednesday without reaching a consensus that their livestock must be culled.
"All countries will adopt the best way to end the spread of this virus as soon as possible. Each country will have to find its own way to end this problem," said Thailand's Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.
Indonesia yesterday ordered a mandatory mass cull of chickens in areas affected by an outbreak of bird flu, reversing its earlier insistence that a large-scale slaughter was not necessary.
Welfare Minister Jusuf Kalla said President Megawati Sukarnoputri had promised government assistance to compensate breeders for the losses and to replace their stocks.
"Immediately cull [chickens] that have been infected," Kalla said following a meeting at the presidential palace. "We will then ... help the small-scale farmers whose chickens were killed."
Singapore said it would kill off all of its chicken stocks immediately if a single case is found in the city state, and Taiwan ordered the slaughter of some 50,000 poultry with a mild strain of virus -- which officials say doesn't infect humans.
China said it intends to kill all livestock birds within a 3km radius of infected sites.
Health authorities in Beijing, a city of 13 million people, meanwhile, banned the slaughter of poultry in the capital and prohibited the sale of uninspected meat and poultry products in markets.
Bird flu is believed to be spread by migratory ducks and other wild birds and Singapore will boost its long-running crow culling campaign that has already reduced their numbers from 120,000 in 2001 to about 30,000, said Satish Appoo, a spokesman for the National Environment Agency.
Most human cases have been traced to direct contact with sick birds and many victims have been young children.
Although there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the latest outbreak, health officials are concerned the virus might mix with a human influenza strain to create a mutant form that could trigger the next human flu pandemic.
Officials also have said there are no indications so far that bird flu is spreading to people who eat properly cleaned and cooked poultry products, but governments worldwide have slapped import bans on poultry from countries affected with bird flu.
The WHO said a human vaccine could be available in about six months.
Heavy rain and strong winds yesterday disrupted flights, trains and ferries, forcing the closure of roads across large parts of New Zealand’s North Island, while snapping power links to tens of thousands. Domestic media reported a few flights had resumed operating by afternoon from the airport in Wellington, the capital, although cancelations were still widespread after airport authorities said most morning flights were disrupted. Air New Zealand said it hoped to resume services when conditions ease later yesterday, after it paused operations at Wellington, Napier and Palmerston North airports. Online images showed flooded semi-rural neighborhoods, inundated homes, trees fallen on vehicles and collapsed
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
POST-UPRISING: Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmakers were yesterday expected to formally elect Tarique Rahman as their leader and new head of government Bangladesh’s prime minister-to-be Tarique Rahman and lawmakers were yesterday sworn into parliament, becoming the first elected representatives since a deadly 2024 uprising. Rahman is set to take over from an interim government that has steered the country of 170 million people for 18 months since the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina was overthrown. The lawmakers, who promised loyalty to Bangladesh, were sworn in by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmakers are expected to formally elect Rahman as their leader, with President Mohammed Shahabuddin then to administer the oath of office to the prime minister and his ministers
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
RSS