Fears of major bird flu outbreak as six die

Health experts are bracing for a repeat of last year’s bird flu outbreak after six people died in Vietnam within three weeks and neighbouring Thailand reported its first case among poultry this year.

Outbreaks among poultry have been reported nationwide in Vietnam, and health experts say the pattern looks worrying similar to last year, when the virus spread rapidly just before the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet.

It quickly appeared in nine other Asian countries, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds and jumping from poultry to people in Vietnam and Thailand, where 26 and 12 people died respectively.

“It has a higher fatality rate than the Ebola virus,” said Hans Troedsson, World Health Organisation representative in Vietnam, where more than 70% of those infected have died.

“Since Tet is a time when people are travelling and more poultry is going to the market, more poultry is being slaughtered, and poultry is more consumed and transported, there is, of course, a high risk of the spread of the virus and infection,” he said of the holiday that starts on February 9.

WHO and other health experts have expressed concern that avian influenza could evolve into the next global pandemic – killing millions worldwide – if the virus mutates and human-to-human transmission occurs. There is, however, no evidence of that having occurred yet.