CHRONOLOGY - Key Dates in Asian Bird Flu Outbreak
Date: 01-Apr-04
Country: UK
Here is a brief chronology of the spread of the disease:
Dec 15, 2003 - South Korea confirms a highly contagious type of bird flu at a chicken farm near Seoul and begins a mass cull of poultry when the virus rapidly spreads across the country.
Dec 31 - Taiwan reports its first case, later destroying thousands of chickens with a milder form of avian flu.
Jan 8, 2004 - Vietnam says bird flu has been found on many of its poultry farms.
Jan 11 - Japan says 6,000 chickens have died of bird flu.
Jan 13 - The World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the deaths of three people in Vietnam are linked to bird flu.
Jan 23 - Cambodia confirms an outbreak at a farm on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Jan 25 - Indonesia discovers an outbreak among chickens.
- Pakistan says two million chickens have died of a mild form of bird flu.
Jan 26 - Thailand confirms the death of a six-year-old boy, its first human death from bird flu.
Jan 27 - The bird flu virus kills ducks in southern parts of China, which begins a cull of 14,000 birds.
The Agriculture Ministry in Laos confirms bird flu in the area around Vientiane.
Feb 1 - The WHO says two sisters have died in Vietnam after contracting bird flu and may have caught it from their brother, who also died.
Feb 2 - An 18-year-old boy dies of bird flu in Ho Chi Minh City, bringing to nine the fatalities in Vietnam.
- A Thai woman dies of bird flu. A seven-year-old Thai boy dies the next day, becoming the country's fourth confirmed death from the disease.
Feb 4 - A 17-year-old girl becomes the tenth person to die from the disease in Vietnam. Thailand says a six-year-old boy who died earlier was infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Feb 7 - 12,000 chickens are destroyed at a Delaware farm in the United States after two birds test positive for the H7 strain.
Feb 9 - Officials say a man from Vietnam's southern Binh Phuoc province has died of bird flu.
Feb 12 - WHO confirms tests show no evidence bird flu is passing from person to person.
- Bird flu is detected at four poultry markets in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the United States, but the strain is not the same as the Asian one.
Feb 13 - China reports outbreaks in the financial hub, Shanghai, and three other regions.
Feb 16 - Asia's bird flu kills a rare clouded leopard in a zoo near Bangkok, making the leap into exotic animals.
Feb 18 - Asia's human bird flu toll rises to 22 as a young boy dies in Thailand and a 29-year-old man dies in Vietnam.
Feb 20 - Bird flu is found in a Texas poultry farm.
March 6 - Bird flu is found in a poultry farm in Maryland, the fifth U.S. state affected.
March 15 - A 12-year-old boy dies in Vietnam bringing the country's total to 16. Another eight die in Thailand.
March 16 - China declares it has stamped out the disease in all 49 hotbeds and has had no reports among poultry for 29 days.
March 30 - Vietnam declares it has stamped out bird flu with no outbreaks since Feb 26.
Both WHO and the FAO express caution.