Vietnam announces seventh bird flu death in three weeks
HANOI - A man who died in northern Vietnam this month has tested positive for avian flu and is considered the country's seventh victim of the disease in three weeks, a medical source said Friday. Authorities had originally said the 45-year-man who died on January 9 in Hanoi had tested negative for the deadly H5N1 virus.
But "the second test on Thursday proved he was positive for H5N1," an official from the Institute of Epidemiology in Hanoi told AFP, requesting to not be identified.The man's brother, 42, has also tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition in a hospital in Hanoi. Six other people have died from bird flu in the south of Vietnam in the past three weeks. The latest deaths take to at least 27 the number of people on record as having died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Vietnam since the end of 2003.
Agence France Presse - January 21, 2005
Teenager becomes Vietnam's sixth bird flu fatality in three weeks
HANOI - An 18-year-old woman has died of bird flu in Vietnam, taking the death toll from the disease in the country to six in the past three weeks, the ministry of health said Thursday. "The 18-year-old woman from Tien Giang province was the sixth H5N1 victim," ministry spokesman Tran Duc Long told AFP.
All six deaths were in southern Vietnam and the victims had all been in close contact with poultry, officials said. The latest deaths take to at least 26 people the number of people on record as having died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Vietnam since the end of 2003. Another 12 have died in Thailand.
The real number of deaths is thought to be higher as tests were not carried out on some suspected cases. The first suspected H5N1 case in the northern part of the country was meanwhile reported in the capital Hanoi. The case involved a 42-year-old man whose 45-year-old brother died of respiratory illness on January 9.
Results of a final test to confirm what the man was suffering from were due Thursday, the health ministry's spokesman said. According to the daily Tuoi Tre newspaper, 21 of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities have been hit by bird flu, including Hanoi.
Agence France Presse - January 20, 2005
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