Travel Forum / Destinations / Asia / October 2005

French tourist 'has not caught bird flu from Thai zoo'
By Jenny Booth and George Sivell and agencies

A man who fell ill on the French island of Reunion after visiting a
bird zoo in Thailand is not after all suffering from bird flu, the
French health ministry said today.

Tests on samples taken from the 43-year-old Frenchman, who being kept
in quarantine in hospital, had shown that he "is not a carrier of the
H5N1 virus, but rather a flu virus of another sort," the ministry said.

It added that it was awaiting the results of tests on two other
patients on the Indian Ocean island whose similar symptoms provoked
fears yesterday that they might have contracted bird flu. The three had
all recently returned from a vacation in Thailand, where they had
visited a zoo housing birds.

Xavier Bertrand, the French Health Minister, said yesterday that
initial tests carried out on the three in Reunion Island had come out
positive for bird flu, but cautioned that "nothing has been confirmed"
pending the more thorough second round of tests in Paris.

Thai authorities protested this morning that it was "impossible" for
the three to have been infected with the disease just from a zoo visit.

Thailand is one of several Asian countries which have recorded human
deaths from bird flu. Nineteen Thais have been confirmed to be infected
with the H5N1 virus, of which 13 have died.

The French health ministry said the results for the other two Reunion
Island patients would be known Friday, adding that they were in
a"satisfactory" condition and receiving anti-viral treatment at their
homes with regular doctor's visits.

The case highlighted the extent of public nervousness about a possible
outbreak of bird flu among humans, which has sent public demand soaring
for antiviral drugs able to lessen the symptoms of flu. Today Roche,
the Swiss pharmaceutical company which manufactures Tamiflu, said that
it had halted deliveries of the antiviral drug to the United States
because of panic buying there.

"We have temporarily suspended shipment of Tamiflu there," to companies
and individuals, said Alexander Klauser, spokesman at the headquarters
of Roche Holding AG in Basel.

The suspension would not affect the U.S. government's order, meant
for building up a national stockpile in the event of a possible flu
pandemic, Klauser said.

The drug was designed to reduce the severity of ordinary flu, if taken
soon after the onset of symptoms, but experts believe it also would be
the most effective weapon in treating a pandemic strain of flu until a
vaccine can be developed.

"We have agreed orders with governments and we will fulfill them,"
Klauser said. "It is important that this is seen separately from the
pandemic offers."

On Tuesday, the Swiss drug giant's Canadian branch said it was
suspending private sales of Tamiflu in Canada until the flu season
begins in December because soaring stockpile demand threatened the
seasonal flu allocation. Wholesale deliveries were halted or cut back
in Germany and Switzerland earlier in October.

Some 40 countries are scrambling to create Tamiflu stockpiles. The
World Health Organization recommends governments keep enough anti-viral
drugs and regular human flu vaccines for at least 25 percent of their
populations.

After your faux pas you seek to laugh stupidly.

What is so funny? Or are you really a retard?