Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology will
coordinate with China's Hong Kong Pasteur Institute to bird flu
detection research, local newspaper Young People reported
Wednesday.
Early next month, the two institutes will start the research
which is aimed at developing methods to rapidly detect bird flu
virus strain H5N1 in a large number of people, the Vietnamese
institute's director Nguyen Tran Hien said, noting that the methods
involve the use of new bird flu diagnosis kits in normal labs.
Now, rapid bird flu diagnosis can be conducted with a limited
number of bird flu suspects in specialized labs equipped with
costly and complicated medical appliances.
Hien said slight changes have been reported in H5N1 in the world
as well as in Vietnam, but the transmission ability of the virus
has decreased.
Vaccinating fowls against bird flu viruses, including H5N1, has
proved effective, which helps control bird flu among humans, he
said.
Vietnam has detected 93 bird flu patients, including 42
fatalities, in 32 localities since the disease started to hit the
country in December 2003, the country's Health Ministry said on
November 28, noting that it has seen no new human cases of
infections since mid-November 2005.
(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2006)
