Bird flu claims new victim

A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy from southern Vietnam has died of bird flu, a doctor said yesterday, in the second report this week of a death from the virus.

The boy died on December 30, said Nguyen Ngoc Diep, director of General Hospital in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap. He had been admitted with a high fever and serious lung infection, Diep said.

Tests in Ho Chi Minh City on a specimen taken from the boy’s throat were positive with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, he said.