Vietnam has succeeded in decoding H5 genes of flu virus type A, Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday.

The Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City has decoded H5 genes, which provides a great help to the effective production and use of vaccines against flu type A in the country, it said.

The institute has also compared the genetic structure of H5 found in Vietnam with that of the virus causing the bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997, and discovered a number of differences, according to the report.

This week, it will conduct analysis to find out the genetic map of N1.

Vietnam will register its result of genetic decoding to be kept in the world's gene bank, the agency said.

By Thursday afternoon, the country detected 124 flu type A infections and suspects, of whom at least 23 died. It has so far reported 15 cases of H5N1 infections, including 10 fatalities.

(People's Daily February 6, 2004)