The smell of roasting chicken wafted out of the open-fronted Happy Life restaurant in central Hanoi and into the open road.
"It would have been a waste of time and money cooking these a year ago, as everyone was too scared to eat chicken," said Hoang Nguyen as he basted the birds before turning them over.
"But now life is returning to normal. People are no longer afraid, they're no longer panicking. They understand the situation much better than before." The diners agreed.
"Bird flu is part of our lives now, we know how to live with it," said Le Minh. "We've been taught that as long as it's cooked properly and comes from a reliable source then there is nothing to worry about."
The calmness extends beyond the better-educated urban areas, according to Jeff Gilbert, the avian influenza expert, at the UN's food and agriculture organization office in Vietnam.
"I think that even in the countryside the majority of people now have some understanding of bird flu, even if it's not yet a complete understanding," he said.
The government had listened to advice, he said, and implemented effective strategies. Live animal markets had been banned and people given incentives to report sick birds and animals.
The impact has been startling. After 29 human cases and 21 deaths in 2004 and 61 cases and 19 deaths last year, there have been no cases so far this year.
It is a similar story in Thailand. The government covered up the outbreak in January 2004 but has learned that secrecy is the worst possible approach.
"If we make everything very transparent and act in a timely manner then people will believe what we say," said Kumnuan Ungchusak, the director of epidemiology at the public health ministry. "But if you delay people will always put a question mark against what you say."
In Thailand, anyone with remotely suspicious symptoms is investigated. This year there have been about 800 notifications but not one positive case.
Another measure the Thais have adopted is to train tens of thousands of rural volunteers to monitor any suspicious illnesses in animals and humans.
"Having the same person at the community level chase down animal and human cases makes such a difference," said Bill Aldis, the head of the WHO in Southeast Asia.
"If you link it to the same reporting chains from the outset then the sensitivity and specificity of human cases rises significantly," he added.
But there was no single right approach, he said, pointing to the fact that Vietnam had vaccinated birds but Thailand had chosen to cull.
Both approaches had proved effective. Indonesia is proof of what happens if governments do not react decisively.
Twelve people have died this year from 13 cases, following on from 11 deaths from 17 cases last year -- the only country in the region that has witnessed an increase in cases over the past 18 months.
"Things are starting to get into place now," said Peter Roeder of the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization. "There's a new coordinating body for bird flu and the surveillance system is starting to get up to speed."
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only