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Last Updated: Apr 16, 2008 - 5:52:06 PM |
SUNDAY April 13, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- South Korea confirmed a fourth outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in the country Sunday, which along with previous outbreaks resulted in the culling of 1.3 million birds to control spread of the disease, The Associated Press reported.
Samples from a farm in Yeoungam, about 236 miles southwest of Seoul tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, Agriculture Ministry official Kim Chang-sup was cited as saying.
South Korea has earlier already reported three other H5N1 outbreaks. And six other outbreaks were being tested for the bird flu virus, Kim said.
In response, quarantine workers had slaughtered nearly 500,000 chickens and ducks at 20 farms within a 1.8 mile radius of the site of the latest outbreak. More than 1.3 million domestic birds have been slaughtered this month in the southwest, according to the ministry.
On April 8, The World Health Organization updated the global status of H5N1 outbreaks reporting that the Ministry of Health and Population of Egypt has confirmed a new human death from H5N1 virus infection, raising the total of human deaths from the H5N1 virus to 21 in the country.
The case involved a 19-year-old male from Kafr El-Dawar District, Behera governorate, according to the WHO. He developed symptoms on March 30, hospitalized on March 31 and died on April 4.
Evidence suggested that the person got infected with H5N1 by contacting with sick and dead poultry.
Worldwide, at least 239 people have died from bird flu since 2003, according to the WHO. Most cases were linked to contact with infected poultry, but cases of infection caused by person to personal transmission were also reported.
H5N1 infection is primarily a disease of birds. It is relatively difficulty for humans to catch the virus, but health authorities fear that a future mutation may make the virus more contagious, but less lethal, increasing the odds of a flu pandemic.
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