Laos reports first human death from bird flu

A 15-year-old Laos girl has died of bird flu, becoming the south-east Asian country’s first known human victim of the H5N1 virus, the country’s health ministry said today.

The girl, who became ill on February 10, died yesterday while undergoing treatment in neighbouring Thailand.

She fell ill just days after the H5N1 virus was confirmed in poultry in the area where she lived, outside the capital, Vientiane.

Health minister Ponmek Dalaloy said in the statement that the government was enforcing “immediate and stringent” measures to curb the disease’s spread, such as culling all infected poultry, strengthening hospital surveillance and conducting awareness campaigns to educate communities on preventative measures.

The outbreak of H5N1 was detected at two farms near Vientiane in early February, the first reported outbreak since July 2006.

Another human case was under analysis. Laos and UN health officials said that a woman who died on Sunday tested positive for a H5-type bird flu virus but further tests were needed to know if the woman, who also lived in Vientiane province, had the virulent H5N1 subtype.

Bird flu has killed more than 160 people since the virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

It remains hard for humans to catch, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic.

So far, most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.