The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the number of Vietnam's confirmed bird flu deaths by one to four, saying a five-year-old boy who died this month was found to have been carrying the virus.
The UN health agency, which is helping Vietnam battle the fast-spreading disease, said the boy, from Nam Dinh province, died on Jan. 8. Nam Dinh is about 100km south of the capital Hanoi.
"WHO now counts four confirmed cases of H5N1 in Vietnam," the agency said in a statement issued late on Friday, referring to the bird flu virus.
The virus continues to infect more people in Vietnam.
Vietnamese hospital officials in southern Kien Giang province yesterday said a 21-year-old woman admitted on Jan. 11 and a 25-year-old man hospitalized two days later showed all the symptoms of influenza A, or the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
They had high fevers, coughs, low blood pressure and low levels of blood cells, symptoms of influenza A, a doctor said on condition of anonymity.
It is the first time suspected human cases have been reported in the south, where the bulk of the bird infections have been. Authorities in the southern Mekong Delta have slaughtered more than a million chickens so far in an attempt to stop the flu's spread.
The two people had not traveled recently outside the province, where no poultry sickened by bird flu have been reported, the doctor said.
Also, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported yesterday that three 1-year-old babies from Hanoi and two surrounding provinces suspected of contracting the virus were admitted to a pediatric hospital in the last two days. Two of them are in serious condition and are on respirators, it said.
Hospital officials declined to comment.
The WHO has four experts advising the government on how to stem the disease.
More experts from the WHO, as well as from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Agriculture Organization were expected to arrive in coming days, the WHO said.
There has been a rise in respiratory cases in Hanoi's hospitals but these have not been proven to be bird flu, the UN health agency said.
Vietnam's flu cases have occurred in the north, while the bird flu has struck the south. It is unclear how the people were infected.
South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have also reported outbreaks of bird flu, but Vietnam has been the hardest hit.
Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken producers, says it has no bird flu but will inspect every poultry farm in the country to halt the spread of cholera among chickens, a top Thai official said on Friday.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS