Vietnamese workers burn chickens at a cemetery

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, February 22 (IslamOnline.net) – SARS-and-bird flu stricken Southeast Asia is now at risk of outbreaks of a new strain of human influenza, the fujian flu, Thai officials warned Saturday, February 21. 

Thailand’s Medical Science Department director-general Somsong Rakphao said the fujian flu was discovered last year in northern Chian before spreading to North America.

“The disease could spread to the Southeast Asian region this year,” Rakphao told Thai daily Bangkok Post.

Officials in the region believe an outbreak of the fujian flu could undermine earnest efforts to curb the deadly bird flu epidemic and endanger tourism and economies.

If the new epidemic struck, Thailand is expected to take the brunt as it is still battling against the bird flu, which has caused several deaths in the country.

Doctors say that South East Asians are prone to catch acute influenza due to the humidity in this region and the incessant rain during the monsoon seasons, which serve as a breeding ground for influenza.

H5N1 Decoded

Meanwhile, a group of researchers in Chulalongkorn University in the Thai capital Bangkok announced they managed to decode nearly all genetic characteristics of the H5N1, the virulent variant behind bird-flu cases. 

A 20-member team spent one month examining the avian influenza virus, obtained from infected chickens in Nakhon Pathom province.

The team came up with 95% of genetic codes that control the functions of H5N1, raising hopes for tracing the virus’ origin and monitoring its rapid mutations, the daily said.      

“'It is quite a profound subject for understanding, but this would give us great benefits in the future,” said veterinary scientist Kanisak Oraveetakul, the head of Chulalongkorn University’s pathology department.

The research work came as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned Tuesday, February 17, that Asia's bird flu crisis was far from over.

Since the beginning of the outbreak of bird flu in Asia last summer, millions of chickens and ducks have been culled in farms across Asia.

WHO Warns Indonesia

In Indonesia, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the government that it was too slow to take preventive measures to handle the bird flu outbreak.

The U.N. health watchdog indicated that it feared the bird flu virus might mutate into a new bird-to-human strain that could lead to a global pandemic if no immediate measures are taken to contain the disease.

With a population of 216 million spread across over 17,000 islands, the country is facing an uphill task in implementing measures to control the disease.

However, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, did not record any human deaths since the outbreak of the killer flu.

The country admitted last month that millions of birds died of the deadly avian influenza for the last five months after months of cover-up.