VIJAY JOSHI

BANGKOK

Thailand declared war on bird flu yesterday as Asia's death toll in the epidemic rose to 30.

The announcement came as Vietnam confirmed another fatality, amid concern that the virus had passed from human to human.

Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, said the disease had to be eradicated before colder weather sets in, when people are more vulnerable to viruses. Migratory birds believed to spread the illness are also due to arrive then.

''If we don't manage this within 30 days, November will be cold, December will be cold, January will be cold. We have a window of 31 days - October 1 to 31 - a very small window, so we have to fight a war to eradicate bird flu,'' Thaksin said.

Addressing 76 provincial governors, Thaksin ordered a campaign to educate the public as well as around-the-clock surveillance of poultry farms.

''If you find any (chickens) that have died, assume first that it is bird flu,'' he said. ''Let us be able to announce on October 31 that we have wiped out (the disease).''

Earlier this year, Thaksin was criticised for denying that the country was suffering from bird flu until the virus had spread.

Yesterday Vietnam confirmed the death of a 14-month-old baby in Hanoi of the virus, bringing its death toll to 20 and Asia's to 30.

The infant died September 5 after suffering from fever and coughing, Vietnam's Health Ministry said.

The remarks came after Thailand reported its first case of probable human-to-human transmission of the virus on Tuesday - Pranee Sodchuen, a 26-year-old woman, the country's tenth confirmed fatality.

Pranee died September 20 of bird flu, which she probably contracted while caring for her daughter Sakuntala, 11, who died September 12. The girl was cremated before tests for bird flu could be carried out.

Pranee never came in contact with poultry and did not live with her daughter, who was being raised in a village where chickens were bred. This led authorities to describe her as Thailand's first probable case of a human contracting the disease from another human.

Normally, people are infected directly by birds. But experts fear the virus may be able to mutate into a form that spreads between people, which could set the stage for a worldwide outbreak of deadly flu.

If it turns out that human-to-human transmission of the virus in Thailand ''has been efficient and sustained,'' it ''would be cause for alarm, as it might signal the start of an flu pandemic,'' the World Health Organisation said.

Still, international health experts said that the likely transmission of the virus from Sakuntala to Pranee appeared to be an isolated ''dead-end'' incident, rather than the start of a major outbreak.

''At the moment I think it is

. . . a one-alarm fire, not a four-alarm fire,'' flu expert William Schaffner said at Vanderbilt University in the US.

Thailand cited its own flaws in dealing with the crisis.

Chaturon Chaisang, deputy prime minister, said the government had not done a good job of educating poultry breeders. He also said ministries had failed to work together properly on bird flu and that better coordination was needed.-AP