# 556
The South Koreans have shown great efficiency in dealing with the H5N1 outbreaks in their country, and obviously take the threat seriously. Their culling operations, and exclusion zones, have been among the most aggressive I've read about.
Today, it was announced that one of their cullers has taken ill, and is suspected of having contracted the H5N1 virus. Tests are pending.
The Story from Korea Times.
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Officials are testing a 38-year-old quarantine worker for the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain after he became ill after a culling operation at a poultry farm in Ansong, Kyonggi Province, on Monday.
A new case of highly-virulent bird flu was also reported Thursday at a poultry farm in Chonan, South Chungchong Provice, raising more questions over the government’s ability to control the spread of the disease.
The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), which revealed the suspected human bird flu case Thursday, said it will take at least a week to confirm whether the man was infected.
If the man tests positive, it would be the country’s second case of a human being infected with the disease.
Four quarantine workers were treated for infection in 2003 after participating in a culling operation in South Chungchong Province during a bird flu outbreak at chicken farms there. Although they tested positive, the four men did not show any flu-like symptoms.
Health officials are also examining the blood serums of all 304 quarantine workers who participated in the culling operations in Ansan, the KCDC said. Quarantine workers had culled more than 218,000 chickens and ducks and more than 7,300 pigs after a bird flu outbreak was confirmed at a chicken farm last month.
``The 38-year-old public worker, whose last name is Kim, suffered from coughs, headaches, and pain in the back after returning from a culling operation in Ansong and is now being treated at the Dankook University Hospital in Chonan,’’ said Kang Young-ah, an official at the KCDC.
``Kim was fully equipped with protective gear during the culling operations and took anti-flu drugs for more than seven days after his the first operation on Feb. 10. We are now examining his respiratory specimen and blood specimen, and it will take about a week from now for the test results to come out,’’ she said.
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