March 4, 2004
 

WHO Says Vietnam Bird Flu Not Contained

Vietnam declared that the country's bird flu epidemic has been contained, but the World Health Organization (WHO) said the announcement is far too premature.

"At this point, we can say that Vietnam has completely contained the epidemic, and with this trend, we will be able to announce avian influenza free by the end of the month," said Bui Quang Anh, head of the veterinary department of Vietnam's ministry of agriculture and rural development (MARD).

But Hanoi's announcement that the virus has been contained is premature, and there is still an ongoing risk to human health, the WHO said on nesday.

"It is not realistic to think that this can be contained in several weeks, or that the problem has been contained so far," said Maria Cheng, the WHO spokesperson in Vietnam.

MARD said that no new outbreaks of the disease in poultry have been detected in the last week-and-a-half in 38 provinces, and that 30 days after the last bird dies they will declare the epidemic completely over.

"This countdown that they are doing - I don't think is entirely useful," said Maria Cheng. "If you look at Thailand and Japan which both previously declared that the outbreak was over, but then had new outbreaks I think that shows you what might happen here as well.

Other outbreaks in more developed countries than Vietnam had taken years to bring the virus under control, and Vietnam still has a long way to go before declaring itself free of bird flu, Cheng said.

"In the United States in 1983 there was an outbreak of H5N2 and it took about two years to bring that one under control," the WHO press spokesperson said. "There was also an outbreak in Holland last year in which about 30 million birds were killed in about a week and it took quite some time for them to declare the outbreak contained."

Since reports of the outbreak began to appear in the state-run media at the beginning of January, 38 million poultry have either been killed or culled as a result of the epidemic.

After initial reports of outbreaks in birds in southern Vietnam, the virus swept through Vietnam and a total of 57 of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities were hit by the bird-killing disease.