Boy dies of bird flu in Vietnam
05/01/2005 - 15:04:21A nine-year-old boy in Vietnam has died of bird flu, bringing the number of people in the country killed by the virus to 21, a doctor said today.
The boy from the southern Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh was admitted to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City early yesterday morning and died later that day, hospital deputy director Tran Tinh Hien said.
“He was tested positive for H5N1 virus,” Hien said, referring to the strain of the virus that is deadly to humans.
World health experts fear that bird flu might mutate and create the next influenza pandemic. So far, there has been no concrete evidence of human-to-human transmission of bird flu.
Only Vietnam and Thailand have recorded human deaths from the virus.
