/ 17 January 2004

Bird flu claims another victim

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Saturday that a fourth person has died from bird flu in Vietnam and warned that a growing number of people are falling sick with respiratory illnesses.

The United Nations health agency said more people have been referred to two hospitals in Hanoi, raising fears that if they test positive for the virus it could wreak havoc on Vietnam’s predominantly rural population.

The outbreak has sparked an Asia-wide health scare but Bob Dietz, the WHO’s spokesperson in Vietnam, cautioned that there is still no evidence of human-to-human transmission despite the deaths of several members of the same family.

”We believe we are seeing more cases of respiratory illness,” he said. ”It is too early to say whether or not this indicates an increase in H5N1 cases.

”It may be because more people with respiratory illnesses are being sent to these hospitals from the areas surrounding Hanoi because of concern surrounding H5N1 infections reported to the public.”

A five-year-old child in the Vietnamese province of Nam Dinh who died on January 8 became the fourth confirmed death from the H5N1 strain of the virus.

The WHO says all four victims caught the virus directly from a bird and not through human transmission. Vietnamese experts have blamed bird flu on the deaths of nine others.

No confirmed or suspected deaths have been reported in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, who are all coping with their own bird-flu outbreaks.

Taiwanese authorities on Saturday ordered 35 000 more chickens to be slaughtered after the less virulent H5N2 strain of the virus was found at a second farm in one week. About 20 000 birds were culled Friday.

Vietnam has ordered the slaughter of all chickens in the 12 worst-affected regions grappling with the epidemic and has banned the sale of poultry in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest metropolis.

Authorities have culled 39 tons of poultry since December 27 in Ho Chi Minh City alone, according to state media. A WHO expert is due to travel to the southern business capital over the weekend on a week-long mission.

Ten more experts from the UN health agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are due to arrive in the Southeast Asian nation this week to help containment efforts.

Meanwhile, the state-run VN Express news portal reported that there had been bird flu outbreaks at a poultry research centre in Hanoi and on a farm in the northern province of Vinh Phuc in July last year.

This comes amid unconfirmed reports that the Vietnamese authorities had deliberately covered up the outbreaks.

”At this point we have good cooperation with the Vietnamese government concerning the H5N1 situation,” said the WHO’s Dietz when asked about a possible cover-up.

The UN agency, meanwhile, says bird flu is largely transmitted through bird droppings and not cooked meat, casting doubt over bans imposed on poultry imports from affected countries by many Asian nations.

The H5N1 virus circulates in the air and is carried by the wind from fresh droppings of contaminated chickens. Piled one on top of the other in cramped cages, the birds easily spread the disease.

Chicken breeders risk catching bird flu by inhaling the bug but it is virtually impossible to catch it from eating infected cooked meat.

But the WHO warned it is equally dangerous for humans to be close to infected birds whether they are alive or dead.

Only a few animals manage to survive once they catch bird flu and those who survive lay in contaminated droppings for a minimum of 10 days.

The UN health agency, which has warned of dire consequences if the virus mutates, said the H5N1 strain has been genetically sequenced.

”We know that all the genes originate from birds and they have not mutated to come from humans,” WHO Geneva spokesperson Fadela Chaib said on Friday.

”It is very important to know this because if the genes mutate and start to come from humans then they will be able to be transmitted from one person to another,” she said. — Sapa-AFP