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Bird flu precautions get extreme

HANOI, Vietnam - Thinking about giving your pet parrot a little kiss? It's not advised in Hong Kong.

The government warning against kissing pet birds is just one of the more colorful pronouncements by officials in Asian nations as bird flu fears spread faster than the virus itself.

On Tuesday, Vietnam banned the sale of one of its specialty appetizers - duck blood pudding, which is what it sounds like. Aficionados say the dish is too much of a tradition to give up, although it has been blamed for passing bird flu to people.

But Vietnam, which has been hardest hit by the H5N1 virus with more than 40 deaths, has also offered citizens and tourists a bit of comfort: Anyone sickened by the virus in the communist country will be treated at hospitals free of charge.

The Philippines and China's largest city, Shanghai, have also come out with strict new policies to try to remain bird flu free.

Shanghai officials say they will disinfect the shoe soles of all travelers arriving by land, sea or air, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The report was unclear on how authorities planned to enforce such precautions on the millions of people entering the city by road each day.

In the Philippines, officials announced that all athletes from bird flu affected countries coming to Manila for the Southeast Asian Games this month will be banned from visiting aviaries and poultry farms - just in case that was on their itinerary.

Wild birds have been blamed for spreading bird flu across Asia and into Europe. The disease has ravaged Asian poultry stocks and killed at least 62 people in Southeast Asia. Health experts fear the virus will mutate into a form easily spread from person to person, possibly igniting a global outbreak that kills millions. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with birds.

Many Asian countries have already declared bans on poultry imports from affected countries along with increased surveillance, including screening passengers at airports for fever or other flu-like symptoms.

Hong Kong lawmaker Tommy Cheung proposed a solution on Oct. 28 for stopping bird flu: "Perhaps what we should do is give each person a gun, and when we see a migrant bird, we can just shoot it down, so Hong Kong would be a much safer place."

[Last modified November 4, 2005, 01:42:07]