12.11.2005

A 1 1/2-year-old boy became the 21st person to catch the H5N1 avian influenza virus, but he was recovering in a hospital, a senior health ministry official said. The boy lived in a house in Minburi, where three fighting cocks and a chicken also lived, said Dr. Thawat Suntarajarn, director-general of the Department of Communicable Disease Control. The birds died soon after the boy was taken to a hospital with flu symptoms, he told The Associated Press.