Malaysia says quarantines two with bird flu symptoms

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 (Reuters) Two people have been quarantined in a Malaysian hospital after displaying symptoms of the bird flu virus, the health minister said today.

Eleven others who were also quarantined had tested negative. Nine of those had been allowed to return home, Chua Soi Lek said in a statement. Two others had been moved to normal wards.

The two people under quarantine were being held in different hospitals. No further details were available.

Malaysia has no human cases of bird flu so far. The authorities detected the H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens in a village in Selangor on Wednesday, the first time avian influenza had been found in the country since March 21 last year.

The authorities have been culling chickens within a 1-km radius of the outbreak as a protective measure.

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