Vietnam reports no new bird flu case in two weeks
HANOI - Vietnam has had no new human bird flu cases in the past two weeks, while outbreaks among poultry have dropped significantly, officials said Monday - a possible indication that the virus is waning. Twelve Vietnamese people have died of bird flu since Dec. 30, while a Cambodian woman died in a hospital in Vietnam last month after contracting the virus. Four other bird flu patients at Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital later recovered and were discharged, a doctor there said Monday.
"No new (human) bird flu case has been reported in Vietnam since the last bird flu death on Jan. 30," said Tran Duc Long, a spokesman at the Ministry of Health. Bird flu has claimed a total of 45 lives from Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia over the past year.
Monday's Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said bird flu has killed or forced the cull of some 1.5 million birds in 34 provinces in Vietnam since December, but that outbreaks among poultry have slowed down in recent weeks. Only two to four outbreaks have been reported since Feb. 8, when 17 were discovered. Meanwhile, seven of the 34 provinces affected have reported no new outbreaks in the last 21 days or more, the paper said. The newspaper quoted Bui Quang Anh, director of the national Department of Animal Health, as saying the country will be able to contain the disease by March.
Bird flu ravaged poultry in 10 countries in Asia last year, killing or forcing the cull of more than 100 million birds, including more than 43 million in Vietnam. Vietnam will be hosting an international conference on bird flu in Ho Chi Minh City later this month, as a follow up to last year's meeting in Bangkok.
The Associated Press - February 14, 2005
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