Bird flu kills young child in Vietnam, hits poultry
(Adds details, changes attribution)
By Ho Binh Minh
HANOI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Bird flu killed a four-year-old boy from an ethnic minority group in northern Vietnam, the country's first human case in nearly five months, a health official said on Thursday.
Separately, the government said the virus had returned to the Mekong Delta in the south this month, killing hundreds of ducks and chickens.
The boy from the Thai ethnic minority group fell sick and was taken to a Hanoi hospital on Dec. 14 with high fever and serious pneumonia, the official at the Preventive Medicine Centre in the mountainous province of Son La said.
The child died on Dec. 16 and tests performed in a Vietnamese laboratory have found the H5N1 virus.
"He was sick after he and his family had eaten about 10 chickens," the official told Reuters by telephone from Son La, 320 km (200 miles) northwest of Hanoi, adding a few of the birds had died from an unknown cause earlier on at the farm.
"We have identified 24 people related to the boy. Eighteen of them had direct contact with him, but none of them was sick," he said.
Vietnam's last reported death from the virus was in August when a teenager died. An outbreak in poultry was last reported in October, but Son La was not on the government's bird flu watchlist.
The Son La official said animal health workers slaughtered 1,000 poultry and disinfected the area where the boy had lived.
The H5N1 virus has killed five of the eight Vietnamese who have caught it this year, and the country's death toll is now at 47 since late 2003.
The Agriculture Ministry said the H5N1 bird flu virus had returned to the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, killing 350 ducks and 430 chickens on five farms in the week ending Dec. 23.
The last outbreak in the area was in early October.
The ministry said the government would start a month-long campaign on Jan. 1 to clean up farms, hatching facilities, slaughterhouses, poultry markets and animal health checkpoints ahead of the Tet festival.
"A history of diseases in the past years show the month leading to Tet is the time bird flu outbreaks flare up in our country," Deputy Agriculture Minister Bui Ba Bong said in a directive, referring to the Lunar New Year festival.
Chicken is the most popular dish during the Tet festival that comes in early next February. Trade and transport of birds often pick up before the holiday.
The H5N1 virus remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world, killing millions.
Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 210 people out of 341 known cases, World Health Organisation figures show. Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been slaughtered.
The WHO tally has not included the death on Dec. 21 by a 25-year-old Egyptian woman or the boy's death in Vietnam. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
By Ho Binh Minh
HANOI, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Bird flu killed a four-year-old boy from an ethnic minority group in northern Vietnam, the country's first human case in nearly five months, a health official said on Thursday.
Separately, the government said the virus had returned to the Mekong Delta in the south this month, killing hundreds of ducks and chickens.
The boy from the Thai ethnic minority group fell sick and was taken to a Hanoi hospital on Dec. 14 with high fever and serious pneumonia, the official at the Preventive Medicine Centre in the mountainous province of Son La said.
The child died on Dec. 16 and tests performed in a Vietnamese laboratory have found the H5N1 virus.
"He was sick after he and his family had eaten about 10 chickens," the official told Reuters by telephone from Son La, 320 km (200 miles) northwest of Hanoi, adding a few of the birds had died from an unknown cause earlier on at the farm.
"We have identified 24 people related to the boy. Eighteen of them had direct contact with him, but none of them was sick," he said.
Vietnam's last reported death from the virus was in August when a teenager died. An outbreak in poultry was last reported in October, but Son La was not on the government's bird flu watchlist.
The Son La official said animal health workers slaughtered 1,000 poultry and disinfected the area where the boy had lived.
The H5N1 virus has killed five of the eight Vietnamese who have caught it this year, and the country's death toll is now at 47 since late 2003.
The Agriculture Ministry said the H5N1 bird flu virus had returned to the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, killing 350 ducks and 430 chickens on five farms in the week ending Dec. 23.
The last outbreak in the area was in early October.
The ministry said the government would start a month-long campaign on Jan. 1 to clean up farms, hatching facilities, slaughterhouses, poultry markets and animal health checkpoints ahead of the Tet festival.
"A history of diseases in the past years show the month leading to Tet is the time bird flu outbreaks flare up in our country," Deputy Agriculture Minister Bui Ba Bong said in a directive, referring to the Lunar New Year festival.
Chicken is the most popular dish during the Tet festival that comes in early next February. Trade and transport of birds often pick up before the holiday.
The H5N1 virus remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world, killing millions.
Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 210 people out of 341 known cases, World Health Organisation figures show. Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been slaughtered.
The WHO tally has not included the death on Dec. 21 by a 25-year-old Egyptian woman or the boy's death in Vietnam. (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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