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Vietnam bird flu claims one
23/05/2005 13:40 - (SA)
Hanoi - Vietnam on Monday reported that another person died from bird flu, bringing the regional death toll to 54 as the communist country continues to fight the disease.
Director of Hung Yen provincial preventive medicine centre, Phan Tien Son, said a 46-year-old man from northern Hung Yen province died last Thursday at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi after being admitted three days earlier with classic bird flu symptoms.
The symptoms included a high fever, coughing and breathing problems.
He said the man tested positive for the H5N1 virus on May 18, while he was hooked to a respirator.
Son said it was unclear how the victim became infected. No bird flu outbreaks had been reported among poultry in the man's village and he had not travelled outside the area, but the family did raise ducks.
Specimens taken from family members
He said none of the poultry appeared sick and the man did not eat duck.
Son said officials from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology visited the village and took samples from 15 family members and others who came into contact with the victim.
Specimens were also taken from the family's ducks, which often could be infected with the virus and remain healthy.
Pham Ngoc Dinh, deputy director of the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology, also confirmed the latest death, which brought Vietnam's toll to 38. Twelve people have also died in Thailand and four from Cambodia since late 2003.
Last week, the World Health Organisation in Geneva again warned that bird flu poses a great potential threat to humans if it evolves into a virus that can easily spread from person to person.
'Frozen chicken legs donated to farmers'
There was no evidence a change had occurred and most cases had been traced back to contact with sick birds.
Meanwhile, the US poultry industry had donated 44 652kg of frozen chicken legs to Vietnam to help farmers whose livelihoods had been devastated by the disease.
The USA Poultry & Egg Export Council said two shipping containers filled with chicken were expected to be sold to traders at auctions this week in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
All proceeds would go to the Vietnamese Poultry Association to help raise awareness and education about how to stamp out avian influenza among farms in the countryside.
It said the idea came after US poultry exporters visited Vietnam earlier this year and saw how hard the country's poultry industry had been hit by the disease.
More than 45 million birds had died or been slaughtered in Vietnam since the outbreak began.
- AP
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