Staying alert in flu country

NST: For the 200 families in Kampung Belian, Sungai Pinang here, the news of the avian flu rearing its head has sent shudders down their spine.
They have become more vigilant keeping an eye on fellow villagers and strangers who bring in chickens and other birds.
It was just a year ago when Kampung Belian made the headlines as one of the two villages in Kelantan where thousands of chickens and birds were culled after scores were infected with the lethal H5N1 avian influenza strain.
Just weeks before that, the country’s first outbreak was discovered among fighting cocks in Kampung Baru, Pasir Pekan, here.
A 10km quarantine was imposed and six people were hospitalised but none tested positive for the flu.
The disease had come through fighting cocks smuggled from neighbouring Thailand.
In Kampung Belian, the situation turned nightmarish as the village was swarmed and guarded round the clock by health and veterinary authorities.
All their poultry and pet birds were culled.
Some lost their prized singing birds, others lost chickens that gave them eggs and a business that kept their families fed.
"It was an expensive lesson for poor people like us as chickens and ducks were our livelihood," said Dollah Yusof, 56.
Dollah said he lost 30 chickens during the culling and only got compensated months later.
"I rear chickens and keep a lookout for strays or strangers bringing fowl into the village," he said.
Malaysia declared itself free of bird flu in January this year.
But the State Veterinary Department has been monitoring the situation here.
"We have seen their vehicles making their rounds every three days," said shopkeeper Ahmad Kais, 44.
Surveillance at the Malay- sia-Thailand border has been stepped up following the death of a 48-year-old man who was infected by the avian flu virus in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on Wednesday.
Villager Minah Abdullah, 53, said she stopped buying chicken from across the border after the disease surfaced early this year.