Myanmar reported its first outbreak of bird flu in poultry yesterday, raising concern over whether the country's crumbling health care system would be able to respond if the H5N1 virus spread to humans.
"They reported they had bird flu," said Laurence Glesson, a senior official from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Bangkok, adding that the government notified the UN agency about the case early yesterday.
"I'm not sure they found bird flu in dead chickens or dead ducks, but it's certainly poultry or some sort," he said.
A Myanmar veterinary official in the central city of Mandalay, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted the outbreak was not severe.
"It's not a critical situation. We will release information soon," he said.
Myanmar veterinary officials told the FAO that 112 birds had died last Wednesday near Mandalay, and authorities culled more birds and quarantined the area, Glesson said.
Cooperation
Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is one of the world's most isolated and secretive nations, but the WHO said the junta was cooperating well with international organizations on bird flu.
"In fact, they are very active. Every time there is a rumor about bird flu, they send a team of investigators. This time, they sent out a team and [the result] was positive," a WHO official said from Yangon.
The junta once dismissed global concerns about a bird flu outbreak in Myanmar, saying the country's mountainous borders were protection against the virus.
The government started a public awareness campaign last year about the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed nearly 100 people mostly in Asia since 2003 and is spreading rapidly through Europe and parts of Africa.
Dismal health care
But the WHO said the campaign was hampered by a lack of financial resources and argued that Myanmar's dismal health care system, after years of US and European sanctions, was ill-equipped to cope with possible human bird flu cases.
"In terms of personnel, they are are very capable. But in terms of supply, equipment and facility, they need support. In the future if there is a human case, they need upgraded medical facility," said the WHO official, who declined to be named.
"We need to do a lot of upgrading to handle [possible] human cases ... At the moment, we are lucky that we don't have human cases. But we are very concerned. When you have [bird flu] in animals, it could happen to humans," she said.
Meanwhile, an official at the Mandalay General Hospital said that doctors have converted a special quarantine room created three years ago during the SARS scare to accommodate any bird flu patients.
"We have prepared a room with equipment to treat anyone who might have bird flu," she said. "So far, we haven't received any patients."
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