Myanmar reveals its first case of H5N1 bird flu

Mar 13 2006

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma has found the H5N1 bird flu virus in chickens in what is believed to be the country's first case of the deadly disease.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) the virus has been detected following the deaths of 112 chickens in the central Mandalay region earlier this month.

Laurence Gleeson, a senior FAO official in Bangkok, says according to a report by the Yangon government there has been no evidence of human infection.

Gleeson says authorities have carried out tests and believe that they have identified H5N1, but are being advised to submit samples to a reference lab to confirm the findings and genetic makeup.

The outbreak emerged on March 8 when chickens began dying in large numbers in Mandalay's Aung Myae Thar Zan Township.

Officials there apparently then destroyed a flock of 780 birds and sent samples to the central diagnostic laboratory in Yangon.

The extremely secretive military-ruled country is regarded as a risk by many international health experts in the global fight against bird flu.

The lethal strain of the virus has to date killed 97 people worldwide, made many more sick and resulted in millions of birds being slaughtered in an attempt to control the it's spread.

While much of neighbouring Asia including China, Thailand and Laos have been battling the spread of the disease since 2003, Myanmar's junta has insisted the country was bird-flu free.

Health experts are worried that should the virus would go unreported, either through a lack of adequate surveillance or a government cover-up, the virus will have time to mutate into a form that passes more easily between humans and trigger a pandemic that could kill millions.

Yangon has of late cooperated with U.N. agencies to step up surveillance in the countryside, including the monitoring of prime stopover points for wild birds which could bring the virus from neighbouring countries.

The Burmese government has reported its findings on the Mandalay outbreak to the FAO and the OIE, the Paris-based international animal health body.