Commentary
Fatal
H5N1 Case in Southern Vietnam
Recombinomics Commentary
12:13
March 19, 2009
Provincial health director Hoang Van Phi said the boy became ill on March 10 after eating a duck that his family had slaughtered at their home in Dong Thap province in southern Vietnam.
The above comments describe a confirmed H5N1 fatality in southern Vietnam (see updated map). Although there have been three prior confirmed cases, as well as the death of the sister of the only confirmed surviving case, all prior cases were in northern Vietnam. Since clade 1, 2 and 7 are co-circulating in Vietnam, the clade characterization of these cases are unclear.
However, the only surviving case was almost certainly infected by her sister, who died with bird flu symptoms, but was not tested. The lack of testing of this fatal case as well as the deaths of the three most recent cases, raises concerns that the level of human H5N1 infections is well above the fourth confirmed cases this year.
Sequence data on these cases, as well as poultry outbreaks, would be useful.
Recombinomics
Presentations
Recombinomics
Publications
Recombinomics
Paper
at Nature Precedings