Vietnam admits it acted prematurely in bird flu crisis
HANOI - Vietnam admitted that it had acted prematurely in declaring in late March that the country was free of deadly bird flu, but said recent outbreaks had been brought under control.
Bui Quang Anh, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said it would take five years to completely eradicate the lethal H5N1 strain of the disease from the environment.
"We cannot declare we are free of avian influenza for another five years," he told reporters. "We are being very active in applying urgent measures to restore poultry stocks after the height of the epidemic earlier this year."
Nineteen people have died in Vietnam this year after being infected with the H5N1 virus that has also killed eight people in Thailand. The H5N1 strain is known to pass from infected poultry to humans.
Three people, including two children, died after being infected last month in Vietnam. Prior to this, the last confirmed death from bird flu in the communist nation was that of a 12-year-old boy who died on March 15.
More than 44 million poultry have perished or been culled as a result of the disease in the country, with 60,200 of the deaths coming after the government's controversial March 30 declaration that it had been eradicated.
International disease control experts charged Hanoi with acting prematurely and recklessly, with the World Health Organization warning that it could take years to eliminate the H5N1 virus from the environment.
Anh, who is also head of the ministry's animal health department, conceded that mistakes had been made.
"In March we declared that we were free of bird flu," he said. "At that time we didn't have enough information and we weren't experienced enough."
However, he stressed that the outbreaks that have occurred in 11 provinces across the country since then have been brought under control and that all the infected regions have been free of bird flu for 21 days.
"These outbreaks were not as serious as the ones earlier this year. They have been brought under control. They were on a smaller scale but we will still continue to take preventive steps," he said.
Specifically, measures would be taken to educate farmers about the disease, in particular along Vietnam's northern border with China, while controls over the transportation of poultry would be stepped up, Anh added.
"We will continue to send different missions to check on the situation in rural areas and urge local authorities to be on alert."
Anh also said samples taken from 188 pigs and sent to laboratories in Hong Kong had not revealed any traces of bird flu.
"We believe that pigs in Vietnam are not infected with H5N1."
Last month, H5N1 was detected in swine in southern China, raising fears that pigs could act as "mixing vessels" in which the virus swaps genes with a human virus to create a deadly new strain capable of human-to-human transmission.
China, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have also been hit by new outbreaks of bird flu over the past couple of months but only Vietnam has reported human infections. The last death in Thailand occurred on March 12.
Agence France Presse - September 1st, 2004.
Vietnam expects bird flu to linger for five years
HANOI - Vietnam warned on Wednesday that bird flu was a "local epidemic" that could erupt anywhere, and said it expects the virus to linger for at least five more years following a fresh outbreak that killed three people last month.
The warning from the agriculture ministry follows criticism that Vietnam was too quick to declare an outbreak over earlier this year.
"It is very difficult to eradicate the bird flu virus. Our hope is in five years we could get rid of this virus entirely," Bui Quang Anh, director of the agriculture ministry's animal health department, told a news conference.
"However, to declare the disease completely over, we would need to have recognition from international agencies," Anh added.
Vietnam was criticised for declaring at the end of March that it had vanquished the virus, which re-emerged in July, confirming experts' warnings it was almost certain to reappear.
The agriculture ministry said poultry farms were especially at risk of fresh outbreaks.
The H5N1 strain of the virus has killed 19 people in Vietnam and eight in Thailand, which has yet to declare itself free of the virus.
Victims caught the disease through close contact with sick poultry, or with their waste. No human-to-human transmission was proved. The latest country to see bird flu infections was Malaysia, but it so far has detected no human cases.
Anh also said two more provinces, Hai Duong in the north and Quang Tri in the centre, have reported H5N1 bird flu infections in poultry but that the outbreak had been contained.
The new cases took the total number of provinces that reported bird flu infection this time to 13.
While not a major poultry exporter, Vietnam is a nation of farmers, many of whom raise chickens and ducks for their own consumption as well as to supplement income from crops. The scattering of small farms makes outbreaks difficult to control.
Reuters - September 1st, 2004.
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