EDITORIAL
Just three weeks after World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan assured the world that the type A (H1N1) flu pandemic was over and had not been as severe as first feared, Thai virologists warned of a renewed threat. In interviews this week, they expressed fears the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain could soon re-emerge.
No Thai has caught it since 2006, when the death toll stood at 17, but poultry populations are still being infected. The scientists pointed to Vietnam which has had 119 cases of avian influenza in humans to date with 56 fatalities. Controversially, they cited pet cats and dogs as possible transmission routes to humans.
The reason these medical researchers are raising a red flag is to provide plenty of warning. That is understandable given the bungling and hysteria that characterised our handling of the H1N1 flu crisis. Politicians and health authorities initially played the outbreak down but later went into panic mode which peaked with the scary suggestion from some doctors at Chulalongkorn Hospital that borders should be closed. Despite all the money spent, the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation failed in its efforts to synthesise an effective vaccine safely and in sufficient quantities. Why they were unable to replicate the manufacture of WHO-approved vaccine in time for it to be of any real use, remains a mystery and one that must be resolved. Other countries did not seem to have a problem and our scientists are as knowledgeable as theirs.
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