Farmers test positive for bird flu

VIETNAM health officials said yesterday that five members of a family that ran a chicken farm in northern Vietnam have tested positive for bird flu.

Initial tests showed the H5N1 virus was present in samples taken from a 35-year-old man, his 32-year-old wife and their three daughters, aged 10, four, and four months, said Nguyen Van Vy, director of Haiphong Health Department.

The family, admitted to Viet Tiep Hospital on March 22 with flu symptoms, had raised more than 400 chickens.