A 28-year-old woman has died of bird flu in Vietnam, the second person there to succumb to the deadly H5N1 strain in just 10 days, after one-and-a-half years with no deaths, an official said yesterday.
She died on Wednesday, two weeks after being admitted to a Hanoi hospital that specializes in tropical diseases, said the director of the state-run National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
Her death brings to 44 the number of people who have died of bird flu in Vietnam. Last weekend authorities reported the death of a 20-year-old man, who was the first fatality to be announced since November 2005.
Since last month, five human cases of bird flu have been reported in Vietnam. Two others who had contracted the virus have already been released from hospital.
Vietnam, once the nation worst hit by avian influenza, contained earlier outbreaks through mass vaccination campaigns, the culling of millions of poultry, and public education campaigns.
But the virus has come back strongly this year, hitting scores of poultry farms in an unusual summer-time outbreak, especially in the densely populated northern Red River delta region in recent weeks.
Avian influenza outbreaks have been reported since early last month in 18 of Vietnam's 64 provinces and municipalities, mostly among unvaccinated ducks and other waterfowl.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently blamed the surge on a rise in unvaccinated ducks grazing in newly harvested rice paddies after Vietnam in March lifted restrictions on waterfowl hatching.
Experts warn that ducks can be "silent carriers" of bird flu, spreading the virus through their feces as they roam across rice fields and ponds while seldom showing symptoms of illness themselves.
The FAO warned Vietnam must ensure good surveillance and response mechanisms, that vaccination campaigns must match breeding cycles and that hatcheries, slaughterhouses and markets must be clean.
Worldwide, the virus has killed 191 people out of 313 infected patients, according to the latest World Health Organization toll dated June 15.
Experts fear the death toll would multiply rapidly if the virus were to mutate and become easily transmitted between humans.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique