Thailand on high alert against H7N9 bird flu

BANGKOK, April 2 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has instructed the Ministry of Public Health to closely monitor updates of H7N9 outbreaks in China, where two patients have died from the spreading bird flu, as part of the country's high alert against the new fatal strain of avian flu. Yingluck told journalists on Tuesday that her government will probably need to introduce more measures to prevent any outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu in Thailand, as the closed farm system, under which poultry, namely chickens, ducks and geese, are raised in the protected environment, can prevent outbreaks of avian flu only to a certain level. The Thai prime minister asked the public to help watch out against any H7N9 outbreak in the country, suggesting as well that all parties concerned help pay attention to weather conditions and the environment of local poultry farms and their vicinity, as well as hygienic health of people in the vulnerable areas. The Thai premier's remarks followed China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission's recent report that two Chinese people have died from the H7N9 virus, one is an 87-year-old man who was sick in Shanghai on February 19, 2013 and died on March 4 and the other is a 27-year-old man who was ill on February 27 and died on March 10, and that a 35-year-old woman was also ill in Anhui Province on March 9 and has been treated at a local hospital. (TNA)