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Vietnam reports new bird flu patient
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-02 16:14
Specimens from a 49-year-old woman from Vietnam's northern Ha Tay province
have been tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5N1, according to local
newspaper Labor on Tuesday.
The woman named Nguyen Thi Them from the Quoc Oai district needs respiratory
assistance at the Institute of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi capital city, although
she has no longer had a temperature. Earlier, she received treatment at a
provincial hospital for 3 days starting on July 27.
The woman had bought a chicken at a local market and cooked it. Local
healthcare agencies have kept close surveillance on areas where she lives and on
those who have close contact with her.
Late last week, local media reported two people, a 26-year-old woman from
southern Ho Chi Minh City and a 24-year-old man from southern Tra Vinh province,
died of bird flu. They exhibited the disease's symptoms after eating chicken.
To date, Vietnam's Health Ministry has yet to confirme the three latest human
cases of bird flu infections. The ministry's Preventive Medicine Department, in
mid-July, confirmed that a total of 60 local people from 23 localities had been
infected with bird flu since late December 2004, of whom 19 died.
To deal with possible new outbreaks among poultry, Vietnam is vaccinating
chickens and ducks in northern Nam Dinh province and southern Tien Giang
province against bird flu viruses, including H5N1. It plans to vaccinate over
2.9 million fowls this month.
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