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Vietnam Reports Two Cases Of Bird Flu in Humans
HANOI, Vietnam --Two more people from northern Vietnam have been sickened with bird flu while thousands of chickens have died in the south -- in the country's first new outbreak among poultry in three months, officials said Monday. The two newest victims tested positive for the virus after being admitted to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi over the weekend, said hospital director Tran Quy. That brought the number of human cases to 13 over the past two weeks, he said, adding the patients, all from the northern provinces, are in stable condition.Bird flu ravaged poultry farms across Vietnam in late 2003, killing or forcing the demise of more than 45 million birds. The virus began jumping to humans around the same time, and has killed a total of 38 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in Cambodia. Meanwhile, more than 4,000 out of 6,700 chickens on a farm in the southern province of Ben Tre died suddenly on June 9, said Mai Van Hiep, director of the provincial animal health bureau. Authorities killed the remaining chickens two days later, and tests showed they were infected with the H5N1 strain of the bird flu. Mr. Hiep added that authorities have disinfected the farm and surrounding areas. So far the majority of human victims have contracted the disease through close contact with sick birds. However, epidemiologists worry that if the H5N1 virus mutates into a form that can be passed directly between people, it could lead to a global influenza pandemic, potentially killing millions. Medical officials say that there has been only one probable case of human-to-human transmission of the bird-flu virus Posted by: too true 2005-06-20 |
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