A major bird market in Dongdaemun, Seoul is deserted Thursday afternoon after virulent H5N1 strain of avian influenza was detected in the capital.
/ Yonhap |
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
``Are these pigeons safe?'' Citizens express fear towards pigeons and magpies on the streets after dead birds found at an aviary in Gwangjin, eastern Seoul, were confirmed to have the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus that can be deadly to humans.
At parks, plazas or apartment complexes where birds flock, pedestrians dodge the menacing birds like something out of Hitchcock's movie - The Birds. Some people cover their nose or eyes and a few even wanted to slaughter them all.
``This morning I told the kids never to touch the birds nor feed them,'' said a 68-year-old woman who took her kid to Boramae Park in Seoul, Thursday. ``You get very cautious after hearing that the bird flu may be just around the corner.''
At Seoul Station plaza, where hundreds of pigeons live and walk around, people tried to keep their distance, bracing themselves against walls if one came too close. A citizen said, ``Let's just get rid of all the pigeons like we killed chickens or ducks if there was the slightest possibility of them carrying the disease.''
Local public health offices are receiving hundreds of phone calls from people asking about the precise symptoms of bird flu and saying they might have caught it. Especially those who had visited the children's park next to the aviary, who complained of soar throats, high fever and other ailments. ``Many of them just had cold,''' a staff member at the office said.
The government set out several measures to ease people's anxiety. They have shut down the aviary and given only limited access to the children's park and traditional open market where the dead pheasants were sold. Quarantine officials and volunteers also tried to isolate 40 birds in Ilgam Pond inside Konkuk University, right next to the aviary.
It has also been decided that the zoo inside Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon will be shut down should a case of bird flu be reported within three kilometers.
The government has begun informing people of the avian influenza. ``Experts say the virus could be carried in the air, but it does not mean all surrounding air contains the virus,'' a city government spokesman said.
It also told citizens to refrain from touching birds at parks or ponds in the neighborhood.
The spokesman asked parents to take extra care of their children. ``There are chicks sold in front of elementary school front gates. We know many children want to buy or touch them because they look cute. But they may touch their excrement, the most likely thing to contain contagious materials,'' he said.
Prof. Kim Jae-hong of Seoul National University said there is little chance people will get infected by such a virus by simply passing by them or being in the same open area. ``I think the reason there were cases of human contraction in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam is because their culture is to breed such animals indoors and therefore they get in contact with their excrement easily,'' he said.
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경찰, 이태원 등 외국인 밀집지역 특별관리
