{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0296220633299285, 'fraction_numerical': 0.04290091930541369, 'mean_word_length': 4.783464566929134, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Platelet count in reported cases of bird flu infection in Thailand

Bird flu or avian flu, caused by the H5N1 virus, is a new emerging infectious disease. There has been a worldwide situation regarding avian influenza infections in poultry since 1997 [1]. Kida noted that the H5N1 virus jumped the species barrier and caused severe disease with high mortality in humans in Vietnam and Thailand [2]. Most infected cases usually developed progressive pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome and consequently died. In 2000, Katz et al. said that in addition to a lethal outcome, H5N1 viruses with a high pathogenicity phenotype exhibited additional features that include rapid and uncontrolled replication in the lungs of infected mice, and dissemination and replication of the virus in other organs [3]. Concerning the hematological aberration due to bird flu infection, depletion of peripheral blood leukocytes is mentioned [3]. According to the recent report of 10 cases of human bird flu infection in Vietnam, lymphocytopenia is common [4]. Concerning any platelet change in human bird flu infection, there are only a few report on this topic. Here, the author has performed this mini-study in order to document the impact of bird flu infection on platelet count among reported Thai patients. A literature review on the papers concerning human bird flu in Thailand was performed. The author performed the literature review of human bird flu infection reports in Thailand from databases of published works cited in the Index Medicus and Science Citation Index. The author also reviewed the published works in all 256 local Thai journals, which are not included in the international citation index, for reports of human bird flu infection in Thailand. The reports that contained no complete data were excluded for further analysis. According to this review, there are six reports [5–10] covering 12 Thai patients with confirmed diagnosis of bird flu. However, complete data were available on only six patients. The reported platelet count ranges from 87 000 to 400 000/mm, with an average value equal to 202 500.0 125 374.2/mm (median1⁄4 167 500/mm). Thus a wide range of platelet counts can be seen. Considering pooled analysis for 16 patients from both Thailand (six cases) and Vietnam (10 cases), the results showed that the reported platelet count ranged from 45 000 to 400 000/mm, with an average value equal to 126 468.75 97 076.85/mm (median1⁄4 88 000/mm). With the high standard deviation, the difference of the platelet counts between the patients in Thailand and Vietnam can be expected. The median platelet count among Thai cases in this study is higher than that of a previous report in 10 Vietnam cases (average1⁄4 88 727.27 38 351.25/mm, median1⁄4 75 000/mm) [4]. Although severe thrombocytopenia is noted in the previous report [4], the platelet count elicited from Thai patients this study is not extremely low.