Myanmar restricts fowl movements after H5N1 outbreaks

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

YANGON, Mar 3 (Reuters) Myanmar has banned the transport and sale of poultry in parts of the commercial capital Yangon where the deadly bird flu virus appears to be spreading, officials said today.

In the latest case, a dozen chickens infected with the H5N1 virus were found today on a backyard farm in Hlinethaya, a township in western Yangon, said Than Hla, a senior official from the Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Fisheries.

Authorities stepped up surveillance after fowl on four farms on the northern outskirts of Yangon tested positive for the virus last week, the country's first outbreaks in a year.

Restrictions on bird movements in affected areas were imposed yesterday.

Some 2,000 chickens and ducks have been culled so far, but there was no immediate evidence of human infections.

''We have been carrying out constant surveillance on the spread of this virus. No suspected human case has been found so far,'' Soe Lwin Nyein, a senior Health Ministry official, told Reuters.

''About 300 people who had contact with infected birds have been under observation, but nothing has been found,'' he said.

It was the former Burma's first outbreak of the feared disease since March last year and the military-ruled country has not reported any human cases.

Soe Lwin said a special ward had been reserved for suspected human cases at the Webargi Infectious Diseases Hospital on the outskirts of Yangon.

''We have enough test kits and enough doses of Tamiflu for 3,000 people,'' he said, referring to the influenza drug stockpiled by many governments worldwide.

Public health experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that people catch easily from one another, possibly sparking a pandemic.

The Myanmar government, which tightly controls the media, was criticized last year for being slow to inform the public of the bird flu threat.

This time newspapers have published daily reports on the outbreaks and warning the public to avoid contact with sick fowl.

REUTERS PDM DS1200

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