Vietnam seeks UN help to combat bird flu

Vietnam has appealed to the UN to help it fight a bird flu outbreak that has killed 12 people in the communist country over the past five weeks.

Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat sent a letter Wednesday to the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation asking that experts be sent to help Vietnamese specialists map out a plan of action to control the disease’s spread.

Ministry official Nguyen Quoc Dat said the minister also asked the two UN agencies to help co-ordinate foreign assistance sent to Vietnam for the best use of resources.

“Last year, we asked the international community to help fight the bird flu and received their effective assistance,” he said. “We hope to get the same thing this year.”

A bird flu outbreak in 2004 spread to 10 Asian countries, forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds and jumping to humans in Vietnam, Thailand and – most recently – Cambodia. Forty-five people have died in the past year, most of them in Vietnam, where the virus has re-emerged in recent weeks.

The WHO’s biggest concern is that the virus may mutate into a form easily spread from person-to-person, potentially sparking a global pandemic. Most cases so far have been traced to sick poultry, and there is no evidence that the disease has altered.