Vietnam reports its second bird flu patient in two days
HANOI - Doctors have confirmed a case of the deadly avian flu in a man, the second human case reported in the last two days in northern Vietnam, hospital officials said yesterday.
Ngo Manh Thanh, 58, was admitted to the respiratory ward of Hanoi’s Bach Mai hospital early last week, and was transferred to the infectious diseases ward on Friday after three sets of tests showed that he was positive for H5N1, said a doctor from the hospital.
“We received confirmation from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology late yesterday,” said a doctor from Bach Mai who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is still not yet clear how he caught the virus.”
The man, from Thanh Hoa province 160km south of Hanoi, is in stable condition, as is the other patient, a man who initially tested positive for H5N1 on Friday.
A Cambodian woman with suspected bird flu in southern Vietnam is improving, but still needs a respirator to breathe, said Huynh Hong Trieu, deputy director of Tien Giang provincial hospital.
The 20-year-old woman’s test results have not yet come back, but she comes from Kampot province where fowl have died, and two other women have tested positive for the virus.
A routinely-flouted ban on the raising of water fowl in Vietnam has been extended, state-controlled media reported yesterday.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had requested a ban until June this year, but the ban has now been extended until the end of February 2006, the Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper reported.
Water birds are a significant bird flu problem in Vietnam as they can carry and transmit the virus without showing any signs of infection.
Since December 2003, 36 people have been killed by bird flu in Vietnam. Thailand has recorded 12 fatalities and Cambodia three.
The World Health Organisation continues to warn of the risk of the virus mutating from its current form into a virus that can be easily spread to and among humans. If the virus became easily transmissible in humans, the ensuing pandemic could kill millions worldwide.
The virus has yet to show signs that it has mutated, and outbreaks in humans and birds in Vietnam appear to be following the same pattern as last year. Human cases were reported through the spring, and then the virus flared up again in the winter.
Vietnam periodically claims that the virus has been contained, but animal and human health experts predict a return of the virus late this year.
More than 281,700 fowl either died from the virus or were culled in the January-March period, latest Indonesian government data show. Since late 2003, Indonesia has lost around 8.9mn fowl to the disease.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - May 15, 2005
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