Saturday January 17, 5:03 PM
WHO says more people falling ill in Vietnam as bird flu
claims new victim
The World Health Organization confirmed that a fourth person had
died from bird flu in Vietnam and warned that a growing number of
people were falling sick with respiratory illnesses.
The UN health agency said more people had been referred to two
hospitals in Hanoi, raising fears that if they test positive for
the virus it could wreak havoc on Vietnam's predominantly rural
population.
The outbreak has sparked an Asia-wide health scare but Bob Dietz,
the WHO's spokesman in Vietnam, cautioned that there was still no
evidence of human-to-human transmission despite the deaths of
several members of the same family.
"We believe we are seeing more cases of respiratory illness," he
said. "It is too early to say whether or not this indicates an
increase in H5N1 cases.
"It may be because more people with respiratory illnesses are being
sent to these hospitals from the areas surrounding Hanoi because of
concern surrounding H5N1 infections reported to the public."
A five-year-old child in the Vietnamese province of Nam Dinh who
died on January 8 became the fourth confirmed death from the H5N1
strain of the virus.
The WHO says all four victims caught the virus directly from a bird
and not through human transmission. Vietnamese experts have blamed
bird flu on the deaths of nine others.
No confirmed or suspected deaths have been reported in South Korea,
Japan and Taiwan, who are all coping with their own bird flu
outbreaks.
Taiwanese authorities Saturday ordered 35,000 more chickens to be
slaughtered after the less virulent H5N2 strain of the virus was
found at a second farm in one week. Some 20,000 birds were culled
Friday.
Vietnam has ordered the slaughter of all chickens in the 12 worst
affected lregions grappling with the epidemic and has banned the
sale of poultry in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest
metropolis.
Authorities have culled 39 tonnes of poultry since December 27 in
Ho Chi Minh City alone, according to state media.
A WHO expert is due to travel to the southern business capital over
the weekend on a week-long mission.
Ten more experts from the the UN health agency, the Food and
Agriculture Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention are due to arrive in the Southeast Asian nation this
week to help containment efforts.
The WHO, meanwhile, says bird flu is largely transmitted through
bird droppings and not cooked meat, casting doubt over bans imposed
on poultry imports from affected countries by many Asian
nations.
The H5N1 virus circulates in the air and is carried by the wind
from fresh droppings of contaminated chickens. Piled one on top of
the other in cramped cages, the birds easily spread the
disease.
Chicken breaders risked catching bird flu by inhaling the bug but
it is virtually impossible to catch it from eating infected cooked
meat.
But the WHO warned it was equally dangerous for humans to be close
to infected birds whether they were alive or dead.
Only a few animals manage to survive once they catch bird flu and
those who survive lay in contaminated droppings for a minimum of 10
days.
The UN health agency, which has warned of dire consequences if the
virus mutates, said the H5N1 strain has been genetically sequenced.
"We know that all the genes originate from birds and they have not
mutated to come from humans," the WHO's Geneva spokeswoman Fadela
Chaib said Friday.
"It is very important to know this because if the genes mutate and
start to come from humans then they will be able to be transmitted
from one person to another," she said.
