The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday it is rushing gowns and masks to Vietnam to prevent further transmission of bird flu to humans, as it struggles to gauge the scope of infection across the country.
Two crates of personal protective equipment are due to arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday from the United Nations health agency’s regional headquarters in the Philippines for distribution to hospital staff and workers culling infected poultry.
”This is needed to stop workers who are culling chickens and hospital staff from being infected,” said Bob Dietz, the WHO’s spokesperson in Vietnam.
Human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has killed at least six people in Vietnam and triggered fears of a global influenza pandemic as it sweeps through Asia, has yet to be detected.
To date, human infection is thought to be from contact with sick birds.
However, the WHO has warned that the highly pathogenic H5N1 could merge with a human influenza virus to create a deadlier and infectious virus sub-type capable of human-to-human transmission.
The UN agency says rapid elimination of bird flu in bird populations is critical to preventing the emergence of a new virus with pandemic potential. But it has warned of the ”brief but intensive exposure to the virus” faced by those culling infected chickens.
At least 2,9-million chickens have died from bird flu or have been slaughtered in 23 of Vietnam’s 64 provinces and cities that have reported 445 outbreaks since December 27, according to government figures.
This has raised fears that more people could have been infected with H5N1, particularly in rural areas where protective equipment is non-existent or in short supply.
”We are worried that we are not seeing the complete picture of infections. We are having to rely on the Vietnamese health authorities to report any cases outside of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City up through the system,” said Dietz.
The WHO is only monitoring hospitals in these two cities, which are two hours’ flying time apart.
Two more WHO epidemiologists and a laboratory technician flew on Sunday to Ho Chi Minh City, taking the WHO’s team there to four people. This follows the death of a 13-year-old boy from H5N1 on Thursday at a city hospital.
His death was the first to have been confirmed in southern Vietnam. The five previous victims were all from the north, baffling officials given poultry in the south had been hit badly by the virus.
An eight-year-old girl has also tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the disease and is in critical but stable condition at the Hospital of Tropical Diseases in the southern business capital.
”She has had no fever for 24 hours,” said Dietz.
Besides the seven confirmed H5N1 infections, the WHO says nine other people — some of whom have already died — could have contracted the virus.
Test results on a further 13 people have so far proved inconclusive. These include two sisters who died on Thursday at Hanoi’s Bach Mai hospital from severe respiratory illnesses. Their brother died on January 14 but was not tested.
Meanwhile, Dr Shigeru Omi, director of the WHO’s Western Pacific region, arrived in Hanoi on Monday for talks with the government on efforts to tackle the disease. He is due to meet with Health Minister Thi Trung Chien on Tuesday.
Japan announced over the weekend that it will donate $20-million-worth of Tamiflu tablets to Vietnam as the country’s health care system lacks funding and equipment.
Although question marks remain over the effectiveness of the oral anti-viral pills, they are being used as a frontline treatment for those suspected of contracting the bird flu. — Sapa-AFP