The Kelantan State Health Department has checked 1,593 houses and 7,689 people in the five villages affected by bird flu, said a local official on Monday.

Director Dr Ahmad Razin Ahmad Maher was quoted by local BERNAMA news agency as saying that his department had assigned 173 staff to deal with the bird flu outbreak after the virus was detected in five villages in the northern state.

"These health examinations are necessary to prevent the disease from spreading as it can be fatal to individuals who contract it," he said.

The virus of H5N1 strain, which was first detected in BaruPasir Pekan Village, Tumpat District on Aug. 17, emerged on Sept. 3 in Belian Village in the same district before it was detected in three other villages last week. The H5N1 strain has the ability to cause severe disease in humans.

He said the department was cooperating closely with Kelantan Veterinary Services Department (JPH) to deal with the problem.

"Checks were held from house to house in the affected villages," he said.

Dr Ahmad Razin said two people from Belian Village had been placed in isolation ward at Kota Baharu Hospital on suspicion of having bird flu, but tests produced negative results. The poultry farmers in the country face losses of one millionringgit (263,157 US dollars) a day from Singapore's ban on Malaysian chicken imports after bird flu was detected in Kelantan.

Hardest-hit are 500 farms in southern and central states of Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Selangor, which normally export the bulk of 130,000 live chickens and 2.3 million eggs to Singapore daily.

Source: Xinhua