Vietnam begins mass vaccination against deadly bird flu
HANOI - Vietnamese authorities are vaccinating three million birds in a southern province, officials said, as nationwide efforts got underway to contain bird flu which has killed 41 people in the country. The trial vaccination started Saturday in Tien Giang province in the heart of the fertile Mekong Delta, where large-scale poultry farming abounds.
"On the first day, some 5,000 chickens that were at least eight days old were vaccinated against the H5N2 virus and some 2,000 ducks that were at least 15 days old were vaccinated against the H5N1 virus," said Cao Van Hoa, deputy director of the provincial agriculture service.
Some 90,000 birds in one commune of the province will be vaccinated in the first week of the campaign, he told AFP.
However, "we have only received 2.3 million doses (of the three million needed in the initial effort) of the vaccine so far," he said.
Two more communes in Tien Giang will also be covered in the massive campaign ultimately accounting for some 80 percent of the province's poultry. A northern province, Nam Dinh, will begin its trial vaccinations on Thursday.
Poultry farmers with the largest stocks have been asked to ensure all of their birds undergo vaccination and to give "written undertakings" that they would not release the vaccinated chickens within 30 days.
They would also have to jot down systematically the clinical signs they notice.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation representative in Hanoi, Anton Rychener, said the trial vaccinations were designed by the FAO in cooperation with Vietnam's department of animal health.
"This is strictly a pilot test and we are testing vaccination and it may well turn out that it is the best tool to combat this disease," Rychener said.
The campaign will spread to the whole of Vietnam in October, the agriculture ministry said.
"In this campaign we are trying to fight bird flu commune by commune. With the experience gained in this trial we hope to go ahead and defeat the H5N1 virus," said Le Minh Khanh, deputy director of the animal health department in Tien Giang province.
"The farmers have extended good cooperation but some of them are unhappy with the tardy and paltry compensation given by the state for culling poultry in recent months."
In July Vietnam bought 415 million doses of bird flu vaccine from China and the Netherlands, fearing the coming winter could bring major outbreaks of the disease.
Health officials said a 49-year-old woman from Ha Tay province south of Hanoi had tested positive to the virus. She is in hospital.
Overall 60 people have died of the disease since the epidemic started in 2003, including 12 Thais, four Cambodians and three Indonesians.
The World Health Organisation's epidemiologist in Hanoi, Peter Horby, has said the organisation approved of the vaccination effort.
"We're very supportive of that activity because we believe it will reduce the risks to humans by reducing the intensity of exposure to the virus," he said.
Health experts have warned the virus could spark a global pandemic if it develops the ability to spread quickly from person to person.
Agence France Presse - August 01, 2005.
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