H5N1 in Northern Laos
Recombinomics Commentary 20:51
February 11, 2008
A fresh outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus has struck in Nam Ma village, Long district, in Luang Namtha province, according to a report from the Department of Livestock and Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The village of 53 houses lost 600 of its poultry stocks within three days last week, the Director General of the department, Dr Bounkhouang Khambounheuang, told Vientiane Times yesterday.
The village is in an isolated district about 35 km from the Myanmar and Chinese borders.
The above comments describe a confirmed H5N1 outbreak in northern Laos. The site of the outbreak is close to outbreaks in northeastern Myanmar, which were linked to the first human case in Myanmar (see satellite map here and here). The last human case of H5N1 in Laos was about a year ago.
This outbreak appears to be distinct form the outbreaks in Bangladesh and India, which involve clade 2.2.3 H5N1.
Laos has issued an alert in adjacent province.
Sequence data on the H5N1 from Laos would be useful.
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