Nong Khai man died of H3N2, not H5N1 : Health Ministry
A Nong Khai man, feared to have been the latest victim of bird flu virus, died instead of a strain of human influenza, the Public Health Ministry said Thursday.
Apichart Phrombutr, a 41-year-old resident of Si Chiang Mai district - where the latest outbreak of bird flu was confirmed last week - died from the H3N2 strain of human flu, not the H5N1 strain of bird flu, said Dr Paijit Warachit, head of the Department of Medical Science.Apichart died on Monday, just two days after falling ill with bird-flu-like symptoms. His death sparked public fears and a wide¬spread rumour that bird flu had claimed another Thai. Some 17 people have died of the disease in Thailand since it was first detected here in 2003. But Paijit said Apichart's home was a long way from the poultry farm where the latest bird flu outbreak was detected. He said there had been another case of someone dying from the H3N2 virus recently - a five-year-old girl in Prachuap Khiri Khan province. Health officials are investigating the two deaths to determine why the virus was so deadly, he said. Paijit said the chief of the Department of Disease Control, Dr Thawat Suntrajarn, agreed it was necessary to investigate the two deaths. Thawat described the inquiry as extraordinary. Health officials needed to find out why the strain of human flu had been fatal and how to improve treatment for influenza, he said. "What I am really wondering is whether or not it's time to inocu¬late all highrisk groups, such as the elderly and young children," he said. Thailand lacks an adequate supply of vaccines for seasonal illnesses, he said, adding that the vaccines were imported. The ministry is calling for a plant to be built to produce seasonal vaccines here, he said. Meanwhile, a senior official at the Health Service Support Department said public health volunteers across the country had been instructed to increase monitoring for human cases of bird flu for the next two months. The Nation
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