Thailand ready to battle bird flu: health minister

As a young boy has been confirmed with bird flu and contracting it from his father who died from the virus two days ago, Thailand's Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said on Saturday that he is confident that the disease will not spread widely in the country.

Thailand is fully prepared to cope with the disease, the minister was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying.

Urging the public not to panic and to be assured that the disease will not spread widely, Suchai said the ministry has 1,300 mobile teams which can travel immediately to areas where birds suspected to have died of the disease.

He said that the teams have over 500,000 village volunteers, whose duty is to warn the public not to touch birds which died suspiciously, and to provide knowledge to farmers and local residents about the virus.

The ministry has also kept 600,000 anti-virus capsules and 200, 000 doses of vaccine in reserves, he said.

Thailand was conducting thorough inspections and there was no risk except for villages where birds have died, Suchai said.

Source: Xinhua