Laboratory tests have revealed that the Nong Khai resident feared to have been the latest human victim of bird flu died instead from a strain of human influenza, the Public Health Ministry said yesterday.

Apichart Phrombutr, a 41-year-old resident of the northern province's 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 Medical Science Department.

Apichart died on Monday, just a few days after falling ill with bird-flu-like symptoms. His death sparked public fears and a widespread 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.

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 inoculate all high-risk 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.

"They should go door-to-door to check for people with bird-flu-like symptoms," said Dr Boonchai Sombooksuk, the department's deputy director-general. If they find someone with such symptoms who has been in contact with fowl or lives in an area where a bird-flu outbreak appears to have occurred, the volunteers should alert health officials and take the patient to a doctor immediately, Boonchai said.

Each volunteer is responsible for about 10 households, he said.

Boonchai also warned people to handle dead fowl with caution.

People who handle bird carcasses must wear gloves or cover their hands with thick plastic bags, he said. The carcasses must be put in a plastic bag and the bag tightly tied then incinerated or buried deep in the ground, he added.

The areas where the birds were buried and raised must also be sprayed with disinfectant, he said.

He also called on the public to immediately report any incidents of mass poultry deaths.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation