Thai toddler dies of suspected bird flu

A four-year-old boy suspected of having bird flu died today as Thai officials gave away cooked chicken and eggs to try to ease public fears of poultry products amid an outbreak that has killed three people and devastated farms nationwide.

Prapasit Taopramong died at a hospital in north-eastern Khon Kaen province’s Manjakhiri district, and an autopsy and lab tests will determine whether the child died from avian influenza, government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said.

Thailand has confirmed three deaths due to bird flu, and the most recent death was among an additional 11 being investigated as possibly due to bird flu.

Testing for bird flu takes as long as two weeks for people and up to eight days for chickens, officials have said.

The virus has jumped to people in two of the Asian countries battling the disease, killing a total of 12.

Most of those cases have been traced to direct contact with sick birds, but health officials say properly cleaned and cooked poultry poses no danger to consumers.

The government has joined forces with poultry farmers and celebrities to offer chicken and eggs at stalls outside Bangkok’s Government House.

Famous actors and politicians munched fried chicken wings and cutlets at stands owned by major Thai poultry producer Saha Farm Co.

A public feast has been scheduled for Saturday at a Bangkok park.

The campaign is part of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s efforts to restore confidence in Thailand’s billion dollar poultry industry, which faces significant losses due to bird flu.

Asia’s bird flu crisis was set to top the agenda of a UN-hosted emergency meeting opening in Rome today, after the confirmed human death toll rose to 12.

Yesterday it was feared the disease had reached Europe with a tourist in Germany tested for the virus after a trip to Thailand.

The woman was rushed by ambulance to a Hamburg medical centre where she was tested for bird flu after complaining of nausea, dizziness and fever following her return from Thailand.

But virus expert Herbert Schmitz of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Health said she probably did not have the disease.

“The patient – probably like hundreds of other tourists returning from Asia - suddenly didn’t feel well and immediately thought it was bird flu,” he said.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which is hosting the three-day Rome meeting, warned that the bird flu outbreak is far from over.

“Bird flu remains a serious public and animal health threat and continues to spread,” said the FAO’s He Changchui.

“The eruption of new infection cases in Thailand, China and Vietnam shows that the disease is far from being under control.”

FAO officials said they believe the disease is spreading within Thailand and Vietnam, but that the situation is less clear for China, where investigators may just now be picking up previously undetected cases.