A pair of ducks is carried at a market in Can Tho, Vietnam, yesterday. The World Health Organisation says the spate of human bird flu cases in Vietnam this year suggests the deadly virus may be mutating in ways that are making it more capable of being passed between humans, who so far are not immune to the infection. - REUTERS
HANOI, Vietnam (AP):
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.
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 that included a high fever, coughing and breathing problems, said Phan Tien Son, director of the Hung Yen provincial preventive medicine centre.
The man tested positive for the H5N1 virus on May 18 while he was hooked to a respirator, he 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, Son said. None of the poultry appeared sick and the man did not eat duck meat, he added.
CONTACT WITH THE VICTIM
Officials from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (N.I.H.E.)visited the village and took samples from 15 family members and others who came into contact with the victim, Son said. Specimens were also taken from the family's ducks, which often can be infected with the virus and remain healthy.
Pham Ngoc Dinh, deputy director of the N.I.H.E., also confirmed the latest death, which brings 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. There is no evidence a change has occurred and most cases have been traced back to contact with sick birds.
AVIAN FLU VACCINE
Meanwhile, the Chinese Government has rushed millions of doses of avian flu vaccine to a western province where migrating geese were found dead earlier this month, saying every farm bird must be inoculated against the disease, a news report said Monday.
The 178 bar-headed geese found in a nature reserve in Qinghai province were the first cases of bird flu that China had reported since July.
Meanwhile, the U.S. poultry industry has donated 44,652 kilograms (100,000 pounds) of frozen chicken legs to Vietnam to help farmers whose livelihoods have been devastated by the disease.
Two shipping containers filled with chicken were expected to be sold to traders at auctions this week in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the U.S.A. Poultry & Egg Export Council said in a statement. All proceeds will go to the Vietnamese Poultry Association to help raise awareness and education about how to stamp out avian influenza among farms in the countryside.
