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BEIJING, Oct 28 (AFP): Governments across Asia Thursday redoubled their efforts to combat bird flu as China insisted it had the virus under control, with state media saying a girl who showed flu-like symptoms died of pneumonia.
In Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said bird flu would be on the agenda at a regional meeting of five Southeast Asian leaders next week, with a view to coordinating efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
Malaysia slapped a ban on the import of pet birds after avian influenza was detected in a parrot in Britain, while Vietnam said it wanted to manufacture Roche's anti-viral drug Tamiflu to combat a possible flu outbreak.
In Indonesia, where at least four people have died of the killer H5N1 strain of bird flu, officials warned the virus was spreading to residential areas, and said it would recruit 1,000 veterinary students to hunt for sick chickens.
Global fears of a massive flu pandemic are mounting, now that the virus has spread to Europe and Russia. On Wednesday, Croatia confirmed that dead swans found last week were carrying H5N1.
More than 60 people have died in Asia since 2003 of the deadly H5N1 strain, two-thirds of them in Vietnam. Last week, Thailand reported its 13th death from bird flu.
Experts fear a pandemic that could kill millions across the globe if H5N1 acquires genetic material from a human influenza virus and becomes easily transmittable from human to human.
China has reported three bird flu outbreaks in the past week, in the Inner Mongolia region and the provinces of Hunan and Anhui, but senior officials insist the spread of the virus is under control.
Premier Wen Jiabao said in Moscow that the government "was taking effective measures" to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain, and that it could "definitely bring the bird flu under control", Xinhua news agency reported.
Health Minister Gao Qiang and other senior officials have issued similar reassurances.
But the South China Morning Post reported Thursday that a 12-year-old girl in the village of Wantang, Hunan province, had died of flu-like symptoms after eating a sick chicken that died, according to her father.
Xinhua news agency, quoting local health authorities, reported late Thursday that the cause of death was "severe pneumonia with acute respiratory difficulty", and that tests for bird flu "have turned out negative".
Local officials told AFP that initial test results showed the girl, He Yin, did not have bird flu. Conclusive results were expected by Friday.
The World Health Organization said it had asked for information about her death, and officials from the WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization both said they would not be surprised if the girl had died from bird flu.
"It is premature to say bird flu is under control. Scientifically or operationally, you can't say it is under control. The opportunity is always there," FAO China representative Noureddin Mona told AFP
Thailand's prime minister said it was impossible to prevent the spread of avian flu but said outbreaks could be quickly contained through joint action.
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