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Vietnam battles three new bird flu outbreaks in poultry
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 22 - 12 - 2006

Authorities in Vietnam have identified three new
outbreaks of bird flu in the Mekong Delta, raising fears of a
larger-scale return of the deadly H5N1 virus after a year of relative
calm, DPA QUOTED an official as saying Friday.
No human cases of bird flu have been reported, but chickens and
ducks have died of bird flu in three new areas in the Mekong Delta
provinces of Ca Mau and Bac Lieu, which this week reported the first
confirmed cases in more than a year.
"The situation is alarming," said Hoang Van Nam, director of the
Epidemic Unit under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development.
Thousands of chickens and ducks in the affected areas have been
slaughtered as authorities try to limit the spread of the virus,
which has killed hundreds of millions of chickens and at least 42
people in Vietnam since 2004.
"Our assessment is that bird flu is likely to spread far outside
the outbreak confirmed localities," Nam said. "Once the virus spread
to the environment, other provinces will be affected."
Nam said the onset of winter represents heightened vulnerability
for infection in both poultry and humans - especially as the coming
lunar new year celebrations usually see families slaughtering
chickens for feasts.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu is not easily contagious among
humans, but people can be infected through close contact with
infected poultry.
The virus has raised fears among scientists because up to 60 per
cent of people known to have been infected have died.
International health organizations warn that H5N1 also could
someday mutate into a new human influenza pandemic strain.
A new flu pandemic - which hasn't been seen since the 1960s -
could kill as many as 62 million people, according to a study
published this week in the medical journal The Lancet.
Most efforts in preventing a pandemic have focused on controlling
the virus in domestic poultry, which would deny H5N1 the contact with
humans that would make it most likely to mutate.
Vietnam has been one of the most successful countries in
controlling the virus through an aggressive programme of poultry
vaccinations, which took the country from having outbreaks in all 63
provinces in 2005 to no reported cases in poultry or humans for more
than a year.
This week's reported outbreaks apparently were at small farms that
had avoided the government-mandated vaccinations, officials said.


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