Bird Flu Spread in Mekong Delta Vietnam
Recombinomics Commentary
January 11, 2005
>>According to the Veterinary Department, 54 bird flu outbreaks were found in 51 communes belonging to 29 districts of nine provinces from Jan. 1-10, 2005. The Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc, Ben Tre, Tien Giang, Long An, Dong Thap, Bac Lieu and Ca Mau, and the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho have culled more than 103,000 infected poultry.<<
The above detail indicates the number of reported bird flu outbreaks has increased markedly between Jan7-Jan10. The number of provinces has increased by two, but media reports indicate that H5N1 positive poultry have been found in Kien Giang also. Thus, all of the provinces in the most southern regions of the Mekong Delta have reported outbreaks.
The number of reported affected communes has increased from 20 to 51 and now there are 14 confirmed or suspect cases, including two sisters 15 and 18 years of age and four fatalities. The southern provinces that border Cambodia are infected and these southern provinces are those closest to the tsunami affected regions in Thailand and Indonesia.
The dramatic increase in the number of H5N1 infected people, pets, and poultry so far this year has been striking, although several of the confirmed and suspect cases were exposed to infected poutry at the end of last year. Thus, the number of reported suspect avian influenza cases would be expected to rise in the near term.
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