Vietnam confirms bird flu outbreak
HANOI, Vietnam - Thousands of poultry died of bird flu in the past two weeks in southern Vietnam, the government said Wednesday, in the country's first reported outbreak in a year.
Tests showed that some 5,500 month-old ducks and 500 chickens died of the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain in the southern Mekong Delta provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health.
Although 42 people have died of H5N1 in Vietnam since late 2003, the Southeast Asian country has not reported any human infections since November 2005, and the last reported outbreak in birds was a month later.
There was no immediate comment from the World Health Organization.
The government has largely curtailed the movement of bird flu through a mass vaccination campaign, but Nam warned that this time the virus could spread.
"The risk of the bird flu virus spreading further is very high because some farmers dumped dead ducklings into canals," Nam said.
Nam said animal health officials have disinfected areas surrounding the outbreaks and have been ordered to cull all poultry in the neighborhood.
The WHO says H5N1 has killed at least 154 people worldwide, and experts fear it could mutate into a form that becomes easily passed among people, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061220/ap_on_sc/vietnam_bird_flu
HANOI, Vietnam - Thousands of poultry died of bird flu in the past two weeks in southern Vietnam, the government said Wednesday, in the country's first reported outbreak in a year.
Tests showed that some 5,500 month-old ducks and 500 chickens died of the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain in the southern Mekong Delta provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Department of Animal Health.
Although 42 people have died of H5N1 in Vietnam since late 2003, the Southeast Asian country has not reported any human infections since November 2005, and the last reported outbreak in birds was a month later.
There was no immediate comment from the World Health Organization.
The government has largely curtailed the movement of bird flu through a mass vaccination campaign, but Nam warned that this time the virus could spread.
"The risk of the bird flu virus spreading further is very high because some farmers dumped dead ducklings into canals," Nam said.
Nam said animal health officials have disinfected areas surrounding the outbreaks and have been ordered to cull all poultry in the neighborhood.
The WHO says H5N1 has killed at least 154 people worldwide, and experts fear it could mutate into a form that becomes easily passed among people, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061220/ap_on_sc/vietnam_bird_flu