Vietnam confirms two children died from bird flu
HANOI - Vietnam on Saturday officially confirmed that two young boys had died from bird flu, after previously refusing to say that the children had contracted the virus.
"We assert that there have been three people infected with the H5N1 virus since December 16, of whom, two had died," the daily Lao Dong newspaper quoted the deputy head of the health ministry's legal department, Tran Duc Long, as saying.
On Thursday, the government said that only a 16-year-old girl from southern Tay Ninh province, who is in critical condition in Ho Chi Minh City, had been infected with the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.
The two boys, aged six and nine, were also from the south and died on December 30 and January 4.
Their deaths brought the total toll from bird flu in Vietnam since late 2003 to 22.
The country is implementing drastic measures to prevent bird flu spreading, especially in the Mekong river delta provinces.
At least 29,000 birds have been culled in Vietnam since December to try to contain the disease, according to local officials.
Agence France Presse - January 08, 2005.
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