Health officials in Malaysia are taking all precautions regarding a 31-year-old man and a teenager who recently showed symptoms of the bird flu virus.
The Bernama news agency said Sunday that a 16-year-old was treated recently in the state of Terengganu after showing signs of the virus, while health officials began examining the elder patient in the state of Selangor.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek said samples from both patients were being tested to find any trace of the H5N1 virus.
"The teenager is believed to have been exposed to the reared chickens and ducks which had died in Seberang Takir, Kuala Terengganu," he said.
The health minister also said several other patients who reported having virus-like symptoms were released recently after being cleared by regional health officials, the news agency reported.
Included among those fortunate individuals were 30 residents of Kampung Paya Jaras Hilir, a village suspected of harboring a bird flu virus outbreak.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Related stories:
'Deadly dozen' reports diseases worsened by climate change
Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society today released a report that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and global economies. Called The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change, the new report provides examples of diseases that could spread as a result of changes in temperatures and precipitation levels. The best defense, according to the report's authors, is a good offense in the form of wildlife monitoring to detect how these diseases are moving so health professionals can learn and prepare to mitigate their impact.
Recovery efforts not enough for critically endangered Asian vulture
Captive breeding colonies of a critically endangered vulture, whose numbers in the wild have dwindled from tens of millions to a few thousand, are too small to protect the species from extinction, a University of Michigan analysis shows.
Researchers identify potential new drug candidates to combat 'bird flu'
As the specter of a worldwide outbreak of avian or "bird flu" lingers, health officials recognize that new drugs are desperately needed since some strains of the virus already have developed resistance to the current roster of anti-flu remedies.
Beaded viruses and geology-inspired paintings show the art in science
Holly Wichman found herself an empty-nester with a well-established research lab in 2000, so she used some of her new found time to pursue an artistic activity that paralleled her research. The virologist began making small beaded sculptures in the shapes of viruses that she studies in her lab. Wichman's beaded viruses along with artworks by two other scientists will be displayed at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Gallery starting 16 June.
Battling bird flu by the numbers
A pair of Los Alamos National Laboratory theorists have developed a mathematical tool that could help health experts and crisis managers determine in real time whether an emerging infectious disease such as avian influenza H5N1 is poised to spread globally.
Secondhand smoke is a health threat to pets
It has been in the news for years about how secondhand smoke is a health threat to nonsmokers. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that secondhand smoke is attributed with killing thousands of adult nonsmokers annually.
Researchers sequence western H5N1 virus genomes
In a paper in the May issue of
Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1.
Biologists shed light on health of marbled murrelet population in early 1900s
To better understand why an endangered seabird's numbers plummeted over the past century, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, turned to museums for help. By studying marbled murrelet specimens collected around the early 1900s, biologists now have reconstructed the seabird's rates of reproduction and survival before its dramatic decline, providing for the first time a baseline measure of health by which contemporary populations can be compared.