Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:55 am Post subject: Strong doubt about tourist bird flu claim
Bangkok (dpa) - Thai and international health authorities on Thursday questioned the likelihood of three French tourists contracting bird flu while visiting a Thai zoo, as has been reported from Paris.
"The possibility is quite low, unless the tourists were having very close contact with the diseased birds," said Somchai Peeratakorn, resident avian influenza expert for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Bangkok. "But who knows what a tourist can do," he added.
French officials on Wednesday announced that three French citizens from Reunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, have possibly been infected with bird flu during a trip to Thailand.
The three people visited a bird park in Thailand, said French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand after a crisis cabinet meeting on avian influenza.
The first tests indicated a positive result for the dreaded H5N1 virus that has killed 13 people in Thailand over the past two years.
The cases are only suspected to be positive, the viral strain in the infections has not been confirmed. Those affected are being treated with anti-viral medications.
If it is proven that the three French tourists contracted bird flu in Thailand, where the 13th bird flu victim died just last week, the impact on Thailand's tourism industry could be dire.
"It is impossible that they could have been infected just because they went to the zoo," Charal Trinvuthipong, assistant to Thailand's agriculture minister Sudarat Keyuraphat told reporters.
He noted that people who contract the deadly H5N1 virus must have had close contact with infected birds, such as touching their saliva or mucus or slaughtering the birds.
To date there have been no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus, though health officials fear the influenza virus will inevitably mutate to allow for human-to-human transmission, a possibility that could lead to a deadly pandemic that will no doubt start in Asia.
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