On March 5, Polish television TVP3 confirmed the country’s first case of avian influenza after tests revealed the H5N1 virus in the carcass of a swan that died two days earlier in Torun, northern Poland.
Meanwhile, in Germany, which shares a border with Poland, the avian influenza virus has spread to its sixth state, Lower Saxony, after a test confirmed that a dead wild goose found in the state last week was infected with the H5N1 virus.
 |
| German soldiers searching for wild bird carcasses on Ruegen Island in the Baltic Sea (Photo: AFP) |
Since a cat died from avian influenza earlier last week on Ruegen Island in the Baltic Sea, the German government has ordered pet owners in the affected areas to keep their dogs and cats indoors. Hundreds of cats have been brought to animal shelters out of fear of infection.
On March 4, an official in Azerbaijan reported that two children who died in the country last month may have been infected with the avian influenza virus, although it is still too early to draw a definitive conclusion. The children’s home had chickens.
Also on March 4, a spokesperson for the Indonesian Ministry of Health announced that a 3-year-old boy living in central Indonesia died from avian influenza. Analyses confirmed that the child was infected with the H5N1 virus, but for an official result, the samples have been sent to the World Health Organization (WHO) laboratory in Hong Kong. If the results do not change, this will mark the 21st death from avian influenza in Indonesia.
In China, a 32-year-old man living in Guangzhou (adjacent to Hong Kong) died on March 2 after suffering from fever and pneumonia for nine days.
Doctors are concerned that this man may have died from avian influenza, as he frequently visited a chicken slaughter area at a local market. If confirmed, this would be the ninth case of death from avian influenza in China.
Since early February, the H5N1 virus has spread to an additional 15 countries and is now present in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.
THANH TRÚC (compiled)
