Vietnam to host flu crisis conference
Vietnam will host an international conference later this month to discuss ways to combat the growing bird flu outbreak that has killed 12 people in Vietnam in a month, an official said today.
The conference is a follow up to last year’s meeting in Thailand where delegates from concerned countries met amid an outbreak that spread to 10 Asian countries, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds.
Last year’s virus jumped from poultry to people and has killed 32 in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand in the past year.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health will sponsor the event, which will also include the World Health Organisation and donors from a number of countries, said Anton Rychener, FAO representative in Vietnam.
“There are a certain number of issues we are discussing, mostly regional cooperation, to devise a common strategy as to how to fight against the outbreak,” he said. “This is actually a follow up to compare notes and to see what countries have done.”
The conference will run from February 23-25 in southern Ho Chi Minh City.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese officials are grappling with how to slow the spread of infection among poultry. The virus has been reported in stocks nationwide and many provinces and the national Animal Health Department have proposed limiting the number of birds – especially hatchlings from infected areas – taken to markets to avoid further spread, said Bui Quang Anh, director the Animal Health Department in Hanoi.
Vietnam has killed or slaughtered about 1 million birds since the start of this year. Most outbreaks have occurred in small household farms.
“The next 10 days will be a critical time as the increase in poultry transportation and cool temperature favours the spread of the virus,” Anh said, referring to Lunar New Year festivities, which begin February 9.
