Thailand on high alert against H7N9 virus

BANGKOK, April 27 (TNA) - Although no victim of the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus has been detected in Thailand so far, Public Health Minister Dr. Pradit Sintavanarong has instructed medical agencies under his ministry to stock up sufficient Oseltamivir antiviral drug and equipment to cope with the fatal disease, which has now spread from China to Taiwan. Dr. Pradit told reporters Saturday that he has also ordered several agencies concerned, including his ministry's Department of Disease Control and provincial public health offices, to closely monitor the disease in both suspected humans and poultry. Dr. Pradit said that the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) and the National Vaccine Institute had also been instructed to stock up Oseltamivir and medicinal equipment to battle with the H7N9 virus, in case it would be detected in Thailand. The public health minister quoted latest statistics issued by the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) as saying that a Taiwanese national was found to have caught the H7N9 virus only a few days after returning from China, becoming the first Taiwanese to have contracted the deadly disease. According to a latest WHO report, up to April 25, 2013, a total of 109 people had been infected with H7N9 virus, 108 of them had been reported in China and the rest one in Taiwan, and 22 of them had died. (TNA)