Published on October 24, 2005 - In a bid to stem the outbreak of bird flu, about 900,000 public-health volunteers have been instructed to immediately scour the country for suspected cases of the potentially killer disease. Hospitals have also been ordered to question possibly infected patients about what contact they may have had with sick or dead chickens before falling ill.

Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said yesterday that he had issued the instructions to public health volunteers and 957 hospitals in a bid to prevent the spread of the deadly avian influenza, which killed a man in Kanchanaburi’s Phanom Thuan district last week.

“Our guiding principle is to protect human lives,” Suchai said.

The volunteers and public-health centres will immediately refer patients suspected of catching bird flu to the nearest hospitals.

“The hospitals should prescribe Tamiflu to these patients and keep them under close medical supervision in separate areas,” he said.

The hospitals must also alert the authorities immediately so that necessary measures can be enforced swiftly in areas suspected of having a bird-flu infection.

Officials are expected to reach any suspected outbreak point within 24 hours of being alerted, the minister said.

Siriraj Hospital director Dr Prasit Wattanapa said yesterday that seven-year-old Ronnarit Benphad, a confirmed bird-flu patient, was in a satisfactory condition. The boy is the son of Bang-orn Benphad, who died of avian influenza last week.

Prasit said bird-flu patients had to be kept under close observation for three weeks, but it was possible for the boy to be closely observed at home.

Doctors will decide next week whether Ronnarit can be discharged. The boy’s mother, Yupin Benphad, has said her son wants to go home.

Kanchanaburi Governor Cherdwit Rittiprasart said more than 42,000 volunteers were scouring every village in the province in search of suspected bird-flu cases.

About 12,000 fowl were culled in Phanom Thuan district last week to prevent the spread of the disease, and a force of 250 livestock officials culled a further 4,000 fowl in the area yesterday.

As well as the two members of the Benphad family, two other suspected cases of bird flu have been reported in Kanchanaburi.

One of them, a three-year-old girl, has been confirmed as suffering from dengue fever and has been dropped from the list of bird-flu suspects.

In Ayutthaya, livestock officials received reports at the weekend of a group of chickens dying en masse.

“We have buried the chickens and collected samples for lab tests,” an official said.

Meanwhile, Disease Control Department Director General Thawat Suntrajarn said the bird-flu virus found in Ronnarit had been sent for laboratory testing to check on mutations, in line with normal procedure.