Tests confirm seven-year boy has caught H5N1 virus in Thailand

Seven-year-old Thai boy Ronarit Benpad rests in a Bangkok hospital October 21, 2005, one day after lab tests confirmed his 48-year-old father as Thailand's 13th victim of the deadly bird flu virus. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

The son of the 13th victim from bird flu in Thailand was confirmed to be infected by the deadly virus, the hospital monitoring the patient said on Friday.

Doctor Prasit Wattanapha, director of the Siriraj Hospital, said results from laboratory tests confirmed that the boy, Ronnarit Benpad, had infected the bird-flu virus.

The results from the labs of the Medical Service Department and the hospital confirmed that the boy had bird flu.

Prasit said the boy was recovering and would be quarantined for monitoring for 21 more days.

He said it could not be confirmed whether the boy had contacted the virus from the environment or from his father, Bang-orn Benpad.

Earlier Friday, government officials said the boy helped his father slaughter chickens but their relatives insisted that the boy had never had direct contact with chicken.

Bang-orn, a villager form Kanchanaburi Province, about 110 km west of Bangkok, caught the disease while he slaughtered sick chicken. Bang-orn died early Wednesday. He was Thailand's 13th fatality from the disease and the first in more than a year.

Initial tests had failed to confirm the disease, but samples analyzed after the man's death confirmed that he had the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus.

"It cannot be told yet whether this is a human-to-human bird flu case as more investigations need to be carried out. The boy might not have contacted the virus from the father but might have contacted it from the environment," Prasit was quoted by the local media ITV as saying.

Source: Xinhua