Bird flu linked with human deaths

A bird flu outbreak that has affected nearly 600,000 chickens in Vietnam is suspected of being linked to the deaths of 10 children and an adult in Hanoi, the World Health Organisation said today.

Viruses in both the chickens and the people appear to be similar – but further testing is being done.

“There is a possible link,” said Peter Horby, a WHO epidemiologist in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital. “In the past, chickens have infected people in outbreaks in Hong Kong in 1997 and again in 2003.”

In addition to the 11 deaths, three others are sick with the virus. All the cases are in Hanoi.

Horby said all the victims are believed to have come into contact with poultry before falling ill.

The virus, which is mutating quickly, has also begun spreading to other poultry such as ducks and geese, said Dau Ngoc Hao, deputy director of the Veterinary Department.

About 1.1 million chickens and ducks were culled last month in South Korea to contain a bird flu that broke out there, and officials in Japan on today said 6,000 chickens had died there and thousands of others would be slaughtered.

Mobile checkpoints have been set up along main roads in the Vietnam’s affected provinces to prevent infected chickens from being transported, Hao said.

The government last week ordered the provinces to slaughter all infected chickens and place infected aeas under quarantine.