With the fast-reaction hi-tech bird flu mobile labs, Public Health Minister Pinit Jarusombat Wednesday said that from now on the bird flu suspects could get the lab test results as soon as four hours.

    Installed with lab equipment designed by the Medical Sciences Department, the vehicle itself was modified from a ten-wheel truck, and has its own electricity generating unit.

    The 15-million-baht (about 375,000 U.S. dollars) vehicle will be on duty around the clock. Its personnel can diagnose many diseases including bird flu, the hand foot and mouth disease, and dengue fever, the public health minister said.

    The first mobile lab will be stationed in the northern province of Phichit and a second is posted to the Medical Sciences Department in Bangkok. The ministry will build two additional mobile labs to be stationed in or dispatched to other regions as needed, he added.

    Dr. Paichit Warachit, director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, said that the existing mobile labs needed additional support equipment from hospitals as well as an outside electricity supply source, so they can't be assigned to remote areas.

    The old mobile units required 6 to 7 hours to deliver laboratory test results, longer than the new labs.

    The department plans to extend the capacity of the new labs to diagnose other diseases such as SARS, he said.

    Thailand has suffered 24 human cases of bird flu, including 16 fatalities, since the disease was first detected here in early 2004. Enditem