Be careful and avoid contact with the poultry yards.
PM urges public caution after boy dies of bird flu
BANGKOK, Dec 10 (TNA) - Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Saturday urged the public to step up precautions against deadly bird flu, saying that the locally produced version of the anti-avian influenza medication Tamiflu is efficient if patients receive the medicine within 48 hours of the viral infection.
His remarks were made in his weekly radio address and came three days after a five-year-old boy from the country's central Nakhon Nayok Province died after contracting the deadly disease, making him Thailand's fifth certified human bird flu case this year.
Mr. Thaksin said the state-run Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) could now produce its own version of Tamiflu, with a combination of Indian and Thai ingredients.
Treatment with the locally produced drug would cost 70 baht per unit, compared to 120 baht each per imported tablet, he noted.
The locally produced drug is efficient on the condition that it must be taken within 48 hours after exposure to the disease is detected, the prime minister said, adding that the suspected patient should visit government-run hospitals immediately.
Public health authorities and the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministries had killed 1,800 chickens in three villages near the area where the boy lived, as a precaution against the disease's spread, he said.
Fourteen of the boy's relatives and neighbours are under surveillance for 10 days and so far none has shown signs of bird flu symptoms