The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the number of Vietnam's confirmed bird flu deaths by one to four, saying a five-year-old boy who died this month was found to have been carrying the virus.
The UN health agency, which is helping Vietnam battle the fast-spreading disease, said the boy, from Nam Dinh province, died on Jan. 8. Nam Dinh is about 100km south of the capital Hanoi.
"WHO now counts four confirmed cases of H5N1 in Vietnam," the agency said in a statement issued late on Friday, referring to the bird flu virus.
The virus continues to infect more people in Vietnam.
Vietnamese hospital officials in southern Kien Giang province yesterday said a 21-year-old woman admitted on Jan. 11 and a 25-year-old man hospitalized two days later showed all the symptoms of influenza A, or the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
They had high fevers, coughs, low blood pressure and low levels of blood cells, symptoms of influenza A, a doctor said on condition of anonymity.
It is the first time suspected human cases have been reported in the south, where the bulk of the bird infections have been. Authorities in the southern Mekong Delta have slaughtered more than a million chickens so far in an attempt to stop the flu's spread.
The two people had not traveled recently outside the province, where no poultry sickened by bird flu have been reported, the doctor said.
Also, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported yesterday that three 1-year-old babies from Hanoi and two surrounding provinces suspected of contracting the virus were admitted to a pediatric hospital in the last two days. Two of them are in serious condition and are on respirators, it said.
Hospital officials declined to comment.
The WHO has four experts advising the government on how to stem the disease.
More experts from the WHO, as well as from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Agriculture Organization were expected to arrive in coming days, the WHO said.
There has been a rise in respiratory cases in Hanoi's hospitals but these have not been proven to be bird flu, the UN health agency said.
Vietnam's flu cases have occurred in the north, while the bird flu has struck the south. It is unclear how the people were infected.
South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have also reported outbreaks of bird flu, but Vietnam has been the hardest hit.
Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken producers, says it has no bird flu but will inspect every poultry farm in the country to halt the spread of cholera among chickens, a top Thai official said on Friday.
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