February 4, 2004

 

 

80% of Vietnamese Provinces Down With Bird Flu

 

More than 80% of Vietnam's provinces are suffering from the bird flu virus, the government said. 

 

13 people have died because of the bird flu, 9 Vietnamese and 4 from Thailand.

The World Health Organization confirmed yesterday that the number of human cases in Vietnam increased by three.

 

Cases of birds with avian influenza have now been detected in at least 53 of Vietnam's 64 provinces and main cities, according to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development dated yesterday. The figure is up from 48 the previous day.

 

Vietnamese government departments should see fighting bird flu as "a key and urgent task of each entity," the office of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said, according to a copy of an order dated Feb. 1. The offices should "set up strict measures to guide prevention of the epidemic in the spirit of preventing floods and storms and extinguishing fires," it said.

 

Thailand confirmed a fourth death from bird flu. A seven-year- old boy died yesterday, Jakrapob Penkair, a government spokesman, said in Bangkok.

 

In Vietnam, a list of newly affected areas includes regions from the country's northwest, near China and Laos, to the center. More than 8.6 million birds have died or been culled to prevent the disease spreading, according to the agriculture ministry.

 

Bird flu symptoms in humans have ranged from typical influenza-like symptoms such as fever, coughs, sore throats and muscle aches to eye infections, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress and other life-threatening complications, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say on their Web site.

 

The World Health Organization's Vietnam office confirmed late yesterday that a man from Lam Dong province in the Central Highlands, who died Monday, was a victim of avian influenza. Ho Chi Minh City's Tropical Diseases Hospital, where the man died, earlier said tests showed the man had bird flu.

 

Vietnam's ninth fatality as a result of the bird flu outbreak is the first human case to be confirmed from the mountainous Central Highlands region. The area was first added to the list of provinces with affected poultry over the weekend.

 

The other two human cases involve adults from provinces in northern Vietnam. One has recovered and the second is hospitalized in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, according to the United Nations health agency.

 

The other infected nations are China, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos and Pakistan. Only Thailand and Vietnam have reported confirmed human infections.