An eight-year-old girl has been confirmed as the fifth person to die in Vietnam from an outbreak of bird flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.
The girl, from northern Ha Tay province, died on Saturday. She was taken to hospital in Hanoi on Jan. 15 after first showing symptoms of the disease on Jan. 11, the WHO said.
PHOTO: AFP
"The WHO confirms this is the fifth case of death from H5N1," said Robert Dietz, a spokesman for the UN agency, referring to the strain of bird flu.
The WHO says there has been no sign the disease is being spread between humans. Its victims are believed to have caught it from infected chickens, and eating cooked chicken and eggs is safe, officials say.
But experts are worried there might be a mixing of the avian flu with a human flu and a new, contagious deadly disease could sweep out of Asia, a year after SARS emerged and killed about 800 people around the world.
South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have also reported outbreaks of bird flu but Vietnam has been the hardest hit. As well as the five confirmed deaths there have been seven suspected avian flu deaths.
While all of the confirmed human cases have occurred near the capital Hanoi, in the north of the country, the flu has struck poultry most severely in the south.
About two million chickens have been killed by the disease or have been culled as authorities try to stamp it out.
The transport of chickens has been banned across much of southern Vietnam and their sale has been stopped in the country's biggest city, Ho Chi Minh City, also in the south.
The WHO has sent an epidemiologist to Ho Chi Minh City to check on whether any human cases of bird flu have emerged there.
Two hospitals in the south have been treating suspected avian flu patients. Kien Giang General Hospital said on Sunday a man showing symptoms similar to those seen in bird flu victims had died. A woman with the same symptoms was recovering.
Can Tho Pediatric Hospital said yesterday a two-month-old child died on Thursday from respiratory illness.
"We are investigating the cause of the death, but it has a possible link with bird flu," said Le Hoang Son, director of the hospital.
Son said some chickens had apparently died of bird flu near the child's home.
Can Tho is among the 15 provinces that have declared an outbreak of bird flu. Kien Giang, one of the southernmost provinces in Vietnam, has not reported an outbreak.
Doctors say bird flu in humans looks similar to common flu, with high fever, sore throat and a dry cough that can deteriorate into severe respiratory problems.
WHO has said it hopes a human vaccine for the disease can be available in a few weeks. The H5N1 variant of bird flu is the most deadly strain although human fatalities from avian flu are very rare.
In 1997, six people in Hong Kong died from H5N1, which prompted a cull of all poultry in the territory. In April last year, a veterinarian in the Netherlands died from a different strain of avian flu.
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