Latest bird flu death brings toll to 36
A 17-year-old boy suspected of having bird flu has died, Vietnamese officials said today, as they banned poultry imports and stepped up measures to stop the disease from spreading.
Tests were being carried out to determine if the boy had the virus that has killed 24 people in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand in the last year.
The results were expected later this week.
The boy from the southern province of Bac Lieu died Saturday, a day after being admitted to a hospital, said Nguyen Minh Tung, director of provincial Preventive Medicine Centre.
He developed a high fever, coughing and lung failure three days after he slaughtered a chicken, Tung said.
Bird flu outbreaks among poultry have been reported across Vietnam in recent weeks, killing or forcing the cull of some 254,000 birds, the Animal Health Department said on its Web site.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has ordered a temporary ban on poultry imports from neighbouring countries to prevent the disease’s spread, the Youth newspaper reported.
Khai did not specify poultry from which countries, but most of Vietnam’s poultry imports are from China.
He also urged ministers and provincial governors to step up measures to control, prevent and eradicate bird flu outbreaks and to ban the transportation of poultry to and from infected areas.
Police in the northern province of Lang Son on Sunday confiscated 1.5 tons of chickens being smuggled in from China, the largest seizure so far, the Labour newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese researchers have begun testing an anti-bird flu vaccine on mice with the result expected in three weeks, the Liberated Saigon newspaper said. Tests would then be conducted on monkeys and chickens and eventually humans, it said.
If successful, the vaccine would be used for both human and poultry.
