Tweet
Tests provide only proof of bird flu infection, say doctors
(19-08-2006)
HA NOI ? Laboratory tests still provide the only guaranteed confirmation of bird-flu infection, scientists and physicians agreed yesterday.
The experts were responding to questions from Viet Nam News about patients who died from symptoms of the H5N1 virus but whose samples tested negative.
The deaths prompted speculation that the virus may have mutated.
The two from southern Hau Giang and Kien Giang provinces died earlier this month after they were hospitalised with symptoms similar to bird flu, including high fever and respiratory difficulties.
Tests at HCM City?s Pasteur Institute showed that they were not infected with the virus.
Patients with pneumonia suffer a serious illness; some are more ill than others and their deaths can come from a variety of causes, said National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology director Nguyen Tran Hien.
"It?s normal."
The relationship between the deaths and the tests was not a cause for alarm.
His institute had continued to research the H5N1 virus to see if it had mutated but had found no evidence that it had done so.
Clinical Medicine and Tropical Diseases Institute director Dr Nguyen Duc Hien said the virus was capable of constant change and this caused difficulties for diagnosis and testing.
His institute, part of Ha Noi?s major Bach Mai Hospital, had treated five or six patients this year with bird flu symptoms but all had tested negative.
He confirmed that test provided the final confirmation though the patients had been isolated and treated as though they had been infected.
The Health Ministry has ordered quarantine officers to intensify border surveillance in key provinces as bird flu is reported from more regional countries.
These are Thai Binh and Ha Tay, in the north, Quang Binh in the centre and Tay Ninh, Dong Thap in the south.
Tests of 1,238 samples taken from people who helped vaccinate birds had proved negative, the ministry?s Preventive Medicine Department director Dr Nguyen Van Binh.
The Transport Ministry has banned bus passengers from carrying live fowls and livestock that cannot be properly checked.
Individuals or organisations that break the ban will be severely punished, says a directive signed by Deputy Transport Minister Pham The Minh.
Viet Nam has not reported any new bird flu infection of humans in more than nine months. ? VNS
(19-08-2006)
HA NOI ? Laboratory tests still provide the only guaranteed confirmation of bird-flu infection, scientists and physicians agreed yesterday.
The experts were responding to questions from Viet Nam News about patients who died from symptoms of the H5N1 virus but whose samples tested negative.
The deaths prompted speculation that the virus may have mutated.
The two from southern Hau Giang and Kien Giang provinces died earlier this month after they were hospitalised with symptoms similar to bird flu, including high fever and respiratory difficulties.
Tests at HCM City?s Pasteur Institute showed that they were not infected with the virus.
Patients with pneumonia suffer a serious illness; some are more ill than others and their deaths can come from a variety of causes, said National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology director Nguyen Tran Hien.
"It?s normal."
The relationship between the deaths and the tests was not a cause for alarm.
His institute had continued to research the H5N1 virus to see if it had mutated but had found no evidence that it had done so.
Clinical Medicine and Tropical Diseases Institute director Dr Nguyen Duc Hien said the virus was capable of constant change and this caused difficulties for diagnosis and testing.
His institute, part of Ha Noi?s major Bach Mai Hospital, had treated five or six patients this year with bird flu symptoms but all had tested negative.
He confirmed that test provided the final confirmation though the patients had been isolated and treated as though they had been infected.
The Health Ministry has ordered quarantine officers to intensify border surveillance in key provinces as bird flu is reported from more regional countries.
These are Thai Binh and Ha Tay, in the north, Quang Binh in the centre and Tay Ninh, Dong Thap in the south.
Tests of 1,238 samples taken from people who helped vaccinate birds had proved negative, the ministry?s Preventive Medicine Department director Dr Nguyen Van Binh.
The Transport Ministry has banned bus passengers from carrying live fowls and livestock that cannot be properly checked.
Individuals or organisations that break the ban will be severely punished, says a directive signed by Deputy Transport Minister Pham The Minh.
Viet Nam has not reported any new bird flu infection of humans in more than nine months. ? VNS
Comment