Two more bird flu deaths
Two more bird flu deaths in people – one announced in Vietnam and one in Thailand – brought the death toll from the disease to 12 today, and China said it suspected the virus had reached poultry in one of its remotest regions.
The World Health Organisation continued to investigate the deaths of two Vietnamese sisters who may have caught the disease through contact with their brother in what would be the first human-to-human transmission in the bird flu outbreak sweeping Asia this year.
But WHO said there was no evidence yet of a new strain that can easily be passed among people.
Investigators have failed to trace the sisters’ infection to a specific event, such as contact with sick poultry, or an environmental source.
Human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out, but direct contact with sick poultry cannot be ruled out either, WHO says.
Health officials may never be able to confirm what happened, in part because the brother’s remains already have been cremated, WHO said.
“The situation is always going to have a question mark hanging over it,” WHO spokesman Bob Dietz said in Hanoi.
The latest death, of a teenage boy, came early today at Vietnam’s Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, according to hospital deputy director Tran Tinh Hien. The youth was admitted last Thursday.
The death announced today in Thailand happened earlier, but health officials did not immediately say when.
The unidentified 58-year-old man from Suphanburi province was suspected to have suffered from bird flu, and that was confirmed in a post-mortem, Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphun said.
Bird flu has killed millions of chickens in 10 Asian countries and jumped to humans in Thailand and Vietnam, killing at least 12 people.
China announced five new suspected cases in poultry today, including one in its remote northwestern region of Xinjiang.
Xinjiang is more than 1,000 miles from the southern region of Guangxi, where China’s first case of bird flu was confirmed last week.
With the new report, China now has three confirmed cases and eight suspected cases in a total of 10 regions spanning the country.
WHO on Saturday urged China to take swifter action against bird flu, warning that its chances to contain the disease may be dwindling. Beijing has closed poultry markets and processing factories in some bird flu-affected areas.
WHO called on China to share more information about the disease, step up monitoring for possible human cases and take precautions so workers slaughtering birds are not infected.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation appealed for international aid for Asian farmers, saying they may otherwise resist slaughtering their flocks, a crucial measure in stamping out the disease and preventing human cases.
