UN questions Vietnam's transparency over bird flu
HANOI - The UN Food and Agriculture Organization questioned Vietnam's transparency over the handling of its bird flu crisis after a 12-year-old boy was confirmed to have died from the disease.
Saturday's announcement of the communist nation's 16th death from the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of influenza dealt a blow to the government's hopes of declaring an official end to the outbreak on March 30.
Hanoi says it had "basically" brought bird flu under control but UN health and animal agencies have repeatedly cautioned against any premature declarations of victory, saying the crisis is far from over.
Anton Rychener, head of the FAO's operations in Vietnam, said this latest death was confirmation that bird flu has not gone away.
"It is obvious that the boy contracted the disease after the government said it was under control. If there was any doubt that bird flu is still not under control then we've now got it," he told AFP.
Rychener also said he was worried that Hanoi may be sweeping the disease under the carpet and deliberately withholding information.
"I've said all along that the international community is unhappy with the cooperation with the authorities."
The victim, Cao Van Khay from the southern province of Tay Ninh, which borders Cambodia, died last Monday at a local hospital, five days after being admitted.
The World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO), which has been spearheading the fight against the disease, said Monday it had not received confirmation of the boy's death.
"We have asked the authorities for details but we have still not received any information," Dr Peter Horby, an epidemiologist with the UN health agency in Hanoi, told AFP.
More than 38 million poultry have died or been slaughtered across Vietnam as a result of the H5N1 outbreak, which was detected in 57 of its 64 provinces. However, no new outbreaks have been reported since the end of February.
Rychener, however, said Khay's death suggested that the virus remains present among poultry.
"It is very difficult to check what's going on but he could not have caught H5N1 if there were not infected chickens around," he said.
His comments were echoed by the WHO's Horby.
"One would suspect that the disease is still in poultry. That is the most likely explanation."
Bui Quang Anh, director of the animal health department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, insisted there have been "no new outbreak of bird flu in the country".
But he said an investigation would be carried out into how the latest victim had contracted the disease.
"The government has asked health ministry to investigate how the victim was infected with the virus because his village and his commune were... far from previous infected areas in the province," he told AFP.
Despite Khay's death, sales of poultry and poultry products resumed last week in the southern business capital of Ho Chi Minh City after the suspension order was lifted. Hanoi has not formally lifted its ban.
With 16 deaths from H5N1, Vietnam is in human terms the worst affected of the eight Asian countries where the strain has been detected. Eight people have died in Thailand.
Last week the Thai government postponed plans to declare itself free of bird flu and said there were fears that the disease had re-emerged in 11 provinces, dashing hopes of reviving its 1.2 billion dollar poultry exporting industry.
Besides Vietnam and Thailand, H5N1 infections have also broken out in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos and South Korea.
Agence France Presse - March 22, 2004.
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