Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
Bird flu spreads wings in Vietnam province
Monday, May 21, 2007
Bird flu has infected several duck farms in a central Vietnamese province, the third infection detected in the region in less than a month, local health authorities said Monday.
Tests found the H5N1 virus among the samples taken after some 400 ducks died in a farm in Nhan Thanh commune, Nghe An province on May 18, the local Animal Health Department said.
Other nearby farms also reported dead ducks in the following days.
Animal health workers have slaughtered the remaining ducks in the commune, disinfected the area and banned poultry transport from the infected area.
The H5N1 virus has killed 42 people in the Southeast Asian country since it re-surfaced in Asia in late 2003.
While more people have been confirmed as infected or killed by bird flu this year in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Egypt, Laos and Nigeria, Vietnam has had no human cases since November 2005.
The virus emerged again among ducks and chickens in the south late last year and earlier this year.
Vietnam today began the launch of the second round of poultry vaccinations against bird flu nationwide, which targets up to 90 percent of the country's poultry stock this year.
Some 111 million poultry, including 70.3 million chickens, had been vaccinated in the first phase, which is still ongoing in several provinces.
Waterfowl are a reservoir for the disease and can spread the H5N1 virus in their droppings as they roam through rice fields. Ducks often show no symptoms of sickness, making it harder to detect and contain the virus.
Experts fear that if the virus mutates, it could start passing easily from one person to another and would sweep the globe, killing millions.
The virus has killed 172 people among the 291 infected people in 12 countries stretching from Asia to the Middle East to Africa. Most of deaths were in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the World Health Organization.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=28271
Monday, May 21, 2007
Bird flu has infected several duck farms in a central Vietnamese province, the third infection detected in the region in less than a month, local health authorities said Monday.
Tests found the H5N1 virus among the samples taken after some 400 ducks died in a farm in Nhan Thanh commune, Nghe An province on May 18, the local Animal Health Department said.
Other nearby farms also reported dead ducks in the following days.
Animal health workers have slaughtered the remaining ducks in the commune, disinfected the area and banned poultry transport from the infected area.
The H5N1 virus has killed 42 people in the Southeast Asian country since it re-surfaced in Asia in late 2003.
While more people have been confirmed as infected or killed by bird flu this year in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Egypt, Laos and Nigeria, Vietnam has had no human cases since November 2005.
The virus emerged again among ducks and chickens in the south late last year and earlier this year.
Vietnam today began the launch of the second round of poultry vaccinations against bird flu nationwide, which targets up to 90 percent of the country's poultry stock this year.
Some 111 million poultry, including 70.3 million chickens, had been vaccinated in the first phase, which is still ongoing in several provinces.
Waterfowl are a reservoir for the disease and can spread the H5N1 virus in their droppings as they roam through rice fields. Ducks often show no symptoms of sickness, making it harder to detect and contain the virus.
Experts fear that if the virus mutates, it could start passing easily from one person to another and would sweep the globe, killing millions.
The virus has killed 172 people among the 291 infected people in 12 countries stretching from Asia to the Middle East to Africa. Most of deaths were in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the World Health Organization.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/healthy/?catid=8&newsid=28271
