Fifth Bird Flu Case From Thai Binh Vietnam
Recombinomics Commentary
March 3, 2005
>> One person from Vietnam's northern region has just been hospitalized after exhibiting bird flu symptoms, local newspaper Pioneer reported Thursday.
Samples from the patient from Thai Binh province, who was admitted to the Tropical Disease Institute in Hanoi capital on March 2, are being tested for the bird flu virus strain H5N1. One day earlier, the institute received two suspected cases of bird flu infection: one from northern Hai Duong province and the other from northern Nam Dinh province. <<
The report on the new patient brings the number of bird flu patients hospitalized from Thai Binh to five. Two more are from adjacent provinces, while the eighth patient is from Hanoi. The clustering of all eight patients in the north is cause for concern. Recent reports have indicated the northern provinces, including Thai Binh, have been H5N1 free for 21 days or more.
In contrast, new outbreaks have been reported in the southern provinces, but there have been no reports of recent human infections. Earlier this season there were 9 confirmed cases in the Mekong Delta as well as one from adjacent Cambodia and none recovered.
Initial reports of H5N1 positive asymptomatic ducks were also in the south. These birds would be likely to transmit to humans because virus is excreted at high concentrations and the poultry appears healthy. Therefore, control of H5N1 is more difficult, and exposure of humans to H5N1 more likely. The movement of poultry before and during the Tet New Year holiday celebrations was expected to increase the number of cases, but so far all reports of new patients are from the northern provinces
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