Timeline: Bird flu crisis unfolds
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Bangkok has promised swift action in a country already culling millions of chickens and disinfecting farms.
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Officials act quickly in China, citing lessons learned from the SARS outbreak a year ago.
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Nations hit by bird flu
•S. Korea
•Japan
•Thailand
•Vietnam
•Cambodia
•Indonesia
•Pakistan
•China
•Laos
•Taiwan (different strain)
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(CNN) -- Since South Korea confirmed a bird flu outbreak in December, authorities have been scrambling to crack down on a disease which has already resulted in human deaths and is ravaging chicken farms in Asia.
In little over a month, avian influenza has been confirmed in ten nations, prompting the World Health Organization to declare it could be more potentially dangerous than SARS, which swept through Asia last year.
Following is a timeline detailing how the crisis unfolded.
2003
15 December 2003
• S Korea confirms bird flu outbreak
2004
9 January
• The United Nations sends help to Vietnam after bird flu outbreak
11 January
• First of six Vietnamese deaths confirmed from bird flu
12 January
• Japan confirms bird flu outbreak
15 January
• Taiwan reports different strain of bird flu
21 January
• Laos reports suspected chicken cholera
• Vietnam says 900,000 chickens possibly exposed to virus sold to public
23 January
• Thailand confirms first human cases of bird flu
• Cambodia confirms bird flu in chickens
25 January
• Indonesia confirms it has been hit by the disease
• Thai PM admits his government suspected a bird flu outbreak for weeks
• China bans poultry from Thailand and Cambodia, joining the EU and Japan
26 January
• Thailand announces first human death from bird flu
• Pakistan reports it has bird flu
27 January
• Laos confirms it has bird flu
28 January
• The number of Thai provinces affected nearly doubles to 25
• Bangkok hosts international crisis talks
• China confirms it has bird flu in two central provinces
• Vietnam says two sisters who died last week were killed by bird flu, taking the country's toll to eight
29 January
• Beijing rejects allegations it was the source of the outbreak
• WHO asks China for explanation of the deaths of two Hong Kong tourists a year ago
• Indonesia orders immediate killing of all infected poultry
• Taiwan reports new outbreaks in ducks and chickens at four farms
• China bans the outdoor slaughter of poultry in Beijing, quarantines 31 farmers
• Pakistan orders a cull of all infected poultry
• Three more provinces hit in Vietnam; 31 of 64 provinces and cities now struck
• India bans all poultry imports
30 January
• Indonesia says it will only carry out a selective slaughter
• Thai officials report four more suspected cases, including one death; 32 out of 76 provinces hit
• WHO says the scale of China's outbreak could be far larger than reported
• Three more regions hit in Vietnam, now totals 34 out of 64
31 January
• China confirms two more areas affected, announces four new suspected outbreaks, raising number to seven, including Shanghai.
• Four more Thai provinces hit, now in 36 of 76 provinces
• Thailand lists three more suspected human cases, three children in critical condition, bringing the number of suspected cases to 14, including seven deaths
• Thai Prime Minister promises to pay three million baht ($76,000) to relatives of anyone dying from eating cooked chicken or eggs
• Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai imposes a ban on all transport of chicken across Vietnam. Seven more provinces affected, number now 41 provinces
• Taiwan slaughters 33,000 chickens at three southern farms hit by H5N2
• Hong Kong says it will give flu shots to up to 5,000 people in the poultry trade
1 February
• WHO says two sisters in Vietnam could have contracted virus from their brother in what could be the first case of human-to-human transmission in Asia's bird flu crisis
• Five more suspected outbreaks in China, one in remote northwestern Xinjiang region
• Singapore says about 250 healthy chickens and other birds are to be culled as a precaution
• Indonesia says it has set aside $5.92 million to compensate farmers ordered to slaughter sick poultry
• Taiwan says it has vaccinated some 8,000 poultry and pig farmers against human flu to prevent it mutating with bird flu strains. Vaccination of all children below 10 considered
• China reveals five more suspected cases of bird flu in poultry, including one in its remote northwest. It now has three confirmed cases and eight suspected cases in 10 regions
