Two Suspected Bird Flu Cases in Tra Vinh Vietnam
Recombinomics Commentary
January 4, 2005
>>A 14-year-old boy and a nine-year-old child from Tra Vinh province were admitted to the provincial hospital after having high temperature, cough and sore throat. The two patients had close contacts with fowls and ate sick chickens, the hospital's doctor Le Minh Dung said.
The boy, Le Quang Vinh, and the child, Thach Phung are now in an isolation treatment area. Vinh is in critical condition.<<
The cases in Vietnam are being reported just over 12 months from the first reports of children in Hanoi dying of a mysterious disease, which was later diagnosed as influenza A and then as H5 influenza.
The latest report follows reports of a 16 year old girl who also had contact with dying chickens in southern Vietnam and tested positive for H5N1 bird flu.
It will be important to sequence the new isolates to see how they have changed from last season. The latest sequences from isolates collected over the summer show close homology with sequences collect at the beginning of last year.
Last year the reported H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks in Vietnam were followed by widespread outbreaks in Thailand and Indonesia, two countries affected by the recent tsunami, which has created favorable conditions for the spread of bird flu.
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