Vietnam says it's `basically contained' bird flu
HO CHI MINH CITY - Vietnam's government said it has ``basically contained'' the outbreak of avian influenza after the number of affected provinces stopped increasing. ``The bird flu is basically contained,'' said Dau Ngoc Hao, vice director of the animal health department in Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. ``We still need to be very careful.''
Vietnam's bird flu outbreak has led to 23 H5N1 infections in humans and 15 fatalities, according to the World Health Organization. More than 38 million poultry birds in Vietnam, or about 15 percent of the country's stock, either died or were killed to prevent the spread of the disease, which reached 57 of Vietnam's 64 provinces. The number of affected provinces has been stable and many areas that had been affected are reporting no new cases of infected poultry, according to Hao.
No new outbreaks have been detected for at least 10 days in 38 of the affected provinces, said Bui Quang Anh, director of the animal health department, according to the Vietnam News. While Vietnam is ``partially containing'' the outbreak, efforts are still needed to totally contain it and declare Vietnam bird flu-free, Anh said, according to the newspaper.
The government had previously set a target for the end of February for containing the outbreak. Last month, Vietnam lifted a ban on the sale of processed poultry products in areas that weren't affected by the outbreak. The sale and transport of live poultry is still prohibited, Hao said. Thailand, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos and Cambodia are also affected by the H5N1 strain, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.
By Jason Folkmanis - Bloomberg - March 02, 2004
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