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Vietnam: Smuggled poultry blamed for spreading bird flu
Illegally imported chicken brings bird flu threat back
(17-03-2006)
HA NOI ? Illegally-imported chicken has created the danger of a new bird-flu outbreak, warns Deputy Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan.
He wants checks at border crossings by Agricultural and Rural Development Ministry and other officials strengthened to prevent this from happening.
The danger of an epidemic was very high when a great amount of poultry entered the country without examination for quarantine, he said.
The World Health Organisation had warned that the H5N1virus had been detected in some China provinces, including those bordering Viet Nam.
Inspectors had reported that chicken from China was being sold at a very cheap VND5,000 per kg and many people had bought it to re-sell inland at between VND40,000 and VND50,000 per kg.
More than 5.2 tonnes of illegally-imported chicken and 150,000 eggs of unknown origin had been confiscated and destroyed in northern Quang Ninh Province earlier this month.
Early this week, a market watch team in the Cao Loc District and border guards at the Bao Lam Post, Lang Son Province, confiscated 4.3 tonnes of illegal chicken.
But smugglers carry the chicken along paths crossing the Huu Nghi ? Dong Dang ? Lang Son railway and this makes them difficult to catch.
Tamiflu test
Viet Nam, Thailand and Indonesia have chosen to experimentally adjust the treatment for flu patients using Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug known as a first defence to the virus.
The agreement was made at a three-day international seminar that ended in Ha Noi yesterday.
The pilot programme, initiated by the World Health Organisation and the US Health Institute, is intended to inhibit development of the virus in humans by doubling the Tamiflu dose from 150mg to 300mg each day.
The decision to increase the dose is based on a successful experiment with animals.
The virus has proved resistant to the drug in some patients given 150mg Tamiflu per day.
Five of the 11 medical units selected to undertake the experimental treatment will be from Viet Nam - the Clinical Medicine and Tropical Diseases Institute, the National Paediatrics Hospital in Ha Noi, the children?s hospitals and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City.
All will be supported with facilities and medicines.
The programme is expected to reduce the mortality rate among bird flu victims from its high 50 per cent. ? VNS
(17-03-2006)
HA NOI ? Illegally-imported chicken has created the danger of a new bird-flu outbreak, warns Deputy Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan.
He wants checks at border crossings by Agricultural and Rural Development Ministry and other officials strengthened to prevent this from happening.
The danger of an epidemic was very high when a great amount of poultry entered the country without examination for quarantine, he said.
The World Health Organisation had warned that the H5N1virus had been detected in some China provinces, including those bordering Viet Nam.
Inspectors had reported that chicken from China was being sold at a very cheap VND5,000 per kg and many people had bought it to re-sell inland at between VND40,000 and VND50,000 per kg.
More than 5.2 tonnes of illegally-imported chicken and 150,000 eggs of unknown origin had been confiscated and destroyed in northern Quang Ninh Province earlier this month.
Early this week, a market watch team in the Cao Loc District and border guards at the Bao Lam Post, Lang Son Province, confiscated 4.3 tonnes of illegal chicken.
But smugglers carry the chicken along paths crossing the Huu Nghi ? Dong Dang ? Lang Son railway and this makes them difficult to catch.
Tamiflu test
Viet Nam, Thailand and Indonesia have chosen to experimentally adjust the treatment for flu patients using Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug known as a first defence to the virus.
The agreement was made at a three-day international seminar that ended in Ha Noi yesterday.
The pilot programme, initiated by the World Health Organisation and the US Health Institute, is intended to inhibit development of the virus in humans by doubling the Tamiflu dose from 150mg to 300mg each day.
The decision to increase the dose is based on a successful experiment with animals.
The virus has proved resistant to the drug in some patients given 150mg Tamiflu per day.
Five of the 11 medical units selected to undertake the experimental treatment will be from Viet Nam - the Clinical Medicine and Tropical Diseases Institute, the National Paediatrics Hospital in Ha Noi, the children?s hospitals and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City.
All will be supported with facilities and medicines.
The programme is expected to reduce the mortality rate among bird flu victims from its high 50 per cent. ? VNS