A disease control official from Bangkok’s Thawee Watthana district sprays disinfectant at a local chicken farm to prevent an outbreak of bird flu. The disease has hit many provinces and some areas of the capital.

The bird-flu epidemic seems to be spreading south as a suspected case was reported yesterday in the lower Central region.

The patient was identified as a 61-year-old woman in Lop Buri's Sa Bot district who fell ill with bird-flu-like symptoms soon after her backyard chickens all suddenly dropped dead.

She had initially tested positive for avian influenza and was being treated in an isolation ward pending confirmation from laboratory tests, said Dr Charn Tantiwa-raporn, director of Ban Mi Hospital, where the victim was admitted on Tuesday.

After being notified about the case, provincial livestock authorities rushed to the woman's home to check for bird flu.

District chief Somsak Intra-watana said he had ordered an urgent cull of all poultry in the province after being notified by the livestock authorities.

This district did not have many chicken farms and most of the poultry were fighting cocks and native hens, he said.

Although denying the existence of bird flu in Sa Bot district, provincial livestock chief Jintana Danwiwatporn said experts were coordinating with other agencies in dealing with hundred of thousands of migratory birds.

Along with warning against cooking and eating sick poultry, the Public Health Ministry was distributing some 100,000 manuals designed to educate the public about bird flu and ways to prevent infections, said Dr Narongsak Ungkhasuwaphala, the ministry's deputy permanent secretary.

Caretaker Deputy Minister Anutin Charnveerakul said that as of Tuesday, 144 patients from 24 provinces, mostly in the North, had been put on the watch-list for bird flu.

The government had stocked up on enough oseltamivir - three million doses - to cover this year, he said. The anti-viral drug can treat bird-flu patients if administered in time.

Two more suspected human cases were found in Phichit, where the first case of human bird flu was recently confirmed. Phetchabun also reported four cases and Phitsanulok three cases.

Nakhon Phanom Governor Mongkol Tansuwan said he had sent a letter to the governor of Khammouane in Laos explaining media reports that blamed that country for starting the bird-flu epidemic that was passed over the border to the province in the Northeast.