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New bird flu outbreaks spark fears

A Vietnamese health worker disinfects ducks arriving at a poultry market in Hanoi, yesterday. Three people, including two children, have died of bird flu in Vietnam, the first time the virus has jumped from poultry to people since the end of a devastating outbreak that swept through the region earlier this year. PHOTO : AP

A 2-year-old boy from Thailand's northeastern Nong Hin province is suspected of having caught the lethal H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, a Thai health spokeswoman said yesterday.

"We are examining a specimen from the 2-year-old boy at the department of medical science to confirm if he has the disease," Health department spokeswoman Nitaya Chamruang Mehebhol told reporters. "Another 100 people from the same village are being monitored because they have been in the infected area."

On Friday five villages in Nong Hin province were put under quarantine following massive poultry deaths and the confirmation of the bird flu virus in the province.

The department of health has mounted a campaign to educate the public on ways to prevent the spread of the deadly bird flu virus, which has resurfaced in 24 of Thailand?s 76 provinces in recent weeks.

The deadly H5N1 virus swept across Asia last January killing 16 people in Vietnam and eight in Thailand. Most or all of the victims had handled infected chickens.

The virus also killed millions of chickens and ducks across the region, prompting a massive culling of millions more that devastated the region's poultry industry.

The virus has also re-emerged in Vietnam, and Friday the government announced three people recently died from the H5N1 virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has asked the Vietnamese government for samples from the infected individuals to send to an outside laboratory for independent confirmation.

The WHO said yesterday it had a team on standby to travel to Vietnam to help tackle any new bird flu outbreak, as authorities tested the relatives of the three latest fatalities.

WHO representatives met Vietnamese officials Friday to discuss the latest outbreak, and were to meet again tomorrow to determine what support Vietnam might require from the WHO, including the possible dispatch of a team from its headquarters in Geneva, WHO representative in Vietnam Hans Troedsson told reporters.

Vietnam confirmed its latest bird flu fatalities on Friday.

Troedsson said health authorities in Vietnam were trying to monitor the possible progression of the virus.

"My understanding is that they have surveillance teams to affected areas, testing especially contacts and family members of those tested positive," he said.

On Friday a health ministry official admitted that two more people being treated in hospital for acute respiratory infections were also suspected of having contracted the disease.

Questions also remain about a group of people from southern Hau Giang province who died between July 29 and August 2.

One of them was tested positive and was among the three new identified cases. But the three others were not tested, raising the possibility they had also died from bird flu.

Vietnam was widely criticized as acting prematurely and recklessly when it declared its bird flu crisis was over.
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