Initial tests show new human bird flu case in Vietnam
HANOI - A 15-year-old boy in Vietnam's northern port city of Haiphong has tested positive for the H5 bird flu virus, according to a local doctor who cited initial tests, but authorities in Hanoi denied the information. "Initial tests show that the boy is positive to the H5 virus. He is in (a) stable condition," said Le Thi Song Huong, deputy director of Haiphong's preventive health care department.
However, a senior official at Hanoi's Institute of Epidemiology, where the tests were conducted, denied the patient had tested positive.
"He is negative" to the virus, said Nguyen Tran Hien, the institute's director.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Tran Duc Long, also said Vietnam has reported no new cases of bird flu over the past few weeks.
Authorities at the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City said meanwhile that a 54-year-old man died on Sunday in the southern business hub's tropical diseases hospital after suffering breathing difficulty, high fever and lung infections.
Tests on blood samples of the man from Vinh Long province in the Mekong delta were being carried out at the institute, they said.
Vietnamese official figures now show a total of 92 human cases of bird flu since late 2003, with 42 deaths. The country accounts for more than two-thirds of total human fatalities from bird flu.
There have been several suspected human deaths and cases of infection in recent weeks.
Bird flu has so far hit 19 cities and provinces of Vietnam since outbreaks among poultry began in early October but the agriculture ministry's official website Tuesday showed only 16 provinces currently had infected poultry.
According to the ministry, some 150 million out of an estimated 220 million birds throughout the country had been vaccinated as of Monday. No independent confirmation is available on this figure.
Agence France Presse - November 22, 2005.
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