Vietnam's Health Ministry said a seven-year-old child from
northern Hai Duong Province has been infected with H5N1, raising
the total number of bird flu patients in Vietnam since 2003 to 105,
according to local newspaper Young People on Saturday.
The child is under treatment at the Central Pediatrics Hospital
in Hanoi capital. Some suspected human cases of bird flu infections
are also under treatment at the city-based Tropical Diseases
Hospital. Their specimens are being tested for H5N1 by Vietnam's
National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
To date, Vietnam has reported a total of 105 human cases of bird
flu infections, including 50 fatalities, since the disease started
to hit the country in December 2003.
Since Feb. 13, two local people, a 27-year-old man named Hoang
Van Doan from northern Ninh Binh Province and a 40-year-old man
named Do Van San from northern Hai Duong Province, have died from
bird flu, the newspaper said.
On Jan. 18, a 32-year-old ethnic man named Tran Van Dong from
northern Tuyen Quang Province died from the disease.
Last December, after detecting no human cases of bird flu
infections for nearly four months, the ministry confirmed that a
four-year-old boy from northern Son La Province died on Dec. 16,
2007 from bird flu.
All the recently-detected bird flu patients have had close
contacts with fowls, like slaughtering dead chickens for meal,
before exhibiting bird flu symptoms. During the Lunar New Year
Festival in early February, a large number of poultry were
transported and slaughtered for meal across Vietnam.
The World Health Organization on Feb. 15 confirmed 103 cases of
bird flu infections, including 49 fatalities in Vietnam. It has yet
to confirm the two latest cases, including one fatality.
Vietnam currently has four localities having poultry being hit
by bird flu: northern Thai Nguyen, central Quang Binh Province,
northern Quang Ninh Province and southern Long An Province, the
Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development said Friday.
Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have
killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls
in the country.
(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)
