Asia's bird flu toll rises to 21

Workers march in to the Malaysian Feedmill Farm Pte Ltd. for the culling of chickens in Singapore yesterday. Singaporean authorities began culling 5,000 chickens 18 February in a test of the city-state's defences against bird flu, as authorities announced a high level task force to keep the island free of the disease.. PHOTO: AFP

Thai health ministry spokeswoman Nitaya Chanrung Mahabhol told AFP that test results showed the boy from northeastern Khon Kaen province who died earlier this month was infected with the disease.

"The boy died on February 3 and had been on the list of suspected infections," she said, adding that the number of suspected cases had grown to 20 with the addition of a two-year-old girl hospitalised since February 12.

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Another 14 people in Vietnam have died from bird flu but so far there are no confirmed human infections in the eight other Asian nations which have reported outbreaks among poultry.

However, health authorities in Indonesia have launched an investigation into whether a 55-year-old man who died in hospital on Monday had eaten chicken infected with bird flu.

As more cases broke out in Thailand, China and Japan this week, the United Nations warned Asia's bird flu crisis was far from over and that nations should not set timelines to declare themselves free of the virus.

Japan's plans to announce this week that its bird flu woes were over were dashed Tuesday when it confirmed a second outbreak, just before China reported two new confirmed cases in central Hunan province.

The discovery prompted Japanese officials on Wednesday to begin inspecting farms housing some 6.8 million birds near the southwestern prefecture where bird flu was detected in bantams raised as pets.

A ban on shipment of poultry and eggs within a 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius of the infected site was also imposed, officials said.

Thailand had also been on the brink of declaring its crisis over and begin rebuilding its devastated 1.2 billion dollar poultry export business before announcing Monday that bird flu had re-emerged in poultry in nine provinces.

Thai officials have warned they expect more cases to be confirmed when the results of the latest round of testing are announced on Friday -- after the close of the stock market which has been buffeted by the unfolding crisis.