6th Bird Flu Fatality in Southern Vietnam
Recombinomics Commentary
January 18, 2005
>>The boy from the southern province of Bac Lieu died Saturday, a day after being admitted to a hospital, said Nguyen Minh Tung, director of provincial Preventive Medicine Centre.
He developed a high fever, coughing and lung failure three days after he slaughtered a chicken, Tung said.
Bird flu outbreaks among poultry have been reported across Vietnam in recent weeks, killing or forcing the cull of some 254,000 birds, the Animal Health Department said on its Web site.<<
The death of the 17 year old boy raises the number of fatalities in confirmed or suspect cases in southern Vietnam to 6. The case listed above is the only unconfirmed fatality as bird flu continues to spread throughout Vietnam. The poultry that has died or been culled has risen dramatically in the past several days.
There have been new reported outbreaks in northern Vietnam and three older males from the north were suspected cases. Two were brothers and one (48M) has died. However the fatal case of acute pneumonia was negative. However, the cluster of 3 acute pneumonia cases in the north has raised concerns over the food supply as well as the current test to detect recombinant H5N1 avian influenza. The other two cases are being tested.
The suspicion level for all three cases should remain high.
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