Vietnam reports more bird flu

Vietnam reported another bird flu infection today in an outbreak that has killed 13 people in Vietnam and Cambodia over the past month, a doctor said.

A 24-year-old man from Hanoi was admitted to the city’s Bach Mai hospital on January 25 with a high fever and cough before testing positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus, said the hospital doctor on condition of anonymity.

The doctor said the man had been removed from a respirator and was recovering.

Meanwhile, two men, ages 66 and 30, from Hanoi and Hung Yen provinces have recovered from the virus and were expected to be discharged next week, she said.

Vietnam has reported 16 bird flu cases since December 30, 12 of which were fatal.

Yesterday, Vietnam reported that a 25-year-old Cambodian woman tested positive for the virus.

She died on Sunday in a Vietnamese hospital across the border from her province, becoming the first Cambodian to die from bird flu.

Today, Cambodia’s health minister Nuth Sokhom and World Health Organisation medical adviser Paul Weelen inspected several villages in the south-western region of the country where the woman lived to get firsthand knowledge of the disease.

“We need to map out what has been happening over the past weeks with the spread of the virus, whether we can find out what has been going on,” Weelen said.

Although bird flu still primarily affects poultry, officials are worried the virus could mutate and “that human to human transmission might become more apparent, then from there on, much easier spread,” he added.

Since the beginning of last year, a total of 45 people from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia have died of bird flu.

The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, based in Rome, issued a joint statement Tuesday with the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) warning that the recent outbreak shows the avian virus remains endemic in Asia and that the challenge lies in controlling the infections from the source.

“The battle against bird flu can only be won if more efforts and resources are directed to containment of the virus in animals in rural areas,” the statement said.

The two groups also warned that the recent tsunami disaster may worsen the bird flu situation in Asia due to the large-scale movement of poultry.

An international conference on bird flu will be held in Ho Chi Minh City later this month, a follow up to last year’s meeting in Bangkok.