An 18-year-old woman has died of bird flu in Vietnam bringing the death toll in the country since December to six yesterday, as Thailand confirmed outbreaks of the virus for the first time this year.
"The 18-year-old woman from Tien Giang province was the sixth H5N1 victim," health ministry spokesman Tran Duc Long told AFP. She died on Wednesday, 13 days after being admitted to a tropical disease hospital in Ho Chi Minh.
All six deaths were in southern Vietnam and the victims had all been in close contact with poultry, officials said.
The latest deaths take to at least 26 the number of people on record as having died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Vietnam since the end of 2003.
The real number of deaths is thought to be higher as tests were not carried out on some suspected cases.
Another 12 people have died in Thailand, where officials confirmed Thursday the first outbreaks this year of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, prompting authorities to declare a high alert throughout the country.
Thai scientists found the virus in 20 fighting cocks in the eastern province of Rayong, said Yukol Limlamthong, who is director general of the Livestock Development Department.
"Tests confirmed on January 10 that some 20 fighting cocks in two houses were infected," he said.
The 20 infected birds were all found in Klang district and have already been killed, he said.
A second outbreak was confirmed in Thailand's central province of Phitsanulok, where 50 locally bred chickens were confirmed to have the disease on Jan. 17, he said.
Both districts where bird flu was found were under a 21-day surveillance period, and no chickens could be taken in or out of the area, Yukol said.
Bird flu is now reported in one third of Vietnam's territory, or 21 out of 64 provinces and cities, with the culling of more than 331,000 poultry since the start of the year, according to the agriculture ministry.
Meanwhile, the first suspected human H5N1 case in the northern part of the country was reported in the capital Hanoi.
The case involved a 42-year-old man whose 45-year-old brother died of respiratory illness on Jan. 9. Results of a final test to confirm what the man was suffering from were due Thursday, the health ministry said.
The World Health Organization said it was awaiting confirmation from Vietnam's health authorities on the case.
"Vietnamese authorities are rechecking all the test results," WHO epidemiologist, Peter Horby, said.
"They are undertaking investigation on possible sources of infection," he said, adding that the WHO had asked Vietnam about the possibility of obtaining samples and sending them to WHO laboratories abroad.
Last year Vietnam was criticized for its slow response to the epidemic. This year the government seems to have been speedier in taking action, yet without being able to contain the disease.
In Hanoi, local authorities say they have applied tough measures to stop the spread of the virus. According to state media, 20 checkpoints have been established at city borders and on highways and 30 at markets.
"Our policy is to establish checkpoints at city borders to control the transportation of poultry into the city," an agricultural expert from Hanoi's People Committee told AFP.
"We allow only quarantined chickens to be sold in the capital," said the unnamed expert.
However, in several of the capital's markets, live chickens with no quarantine certification could be found easily.
"I don't need a quarantine certification as I sell only healthy chickens," a seller in Dinh Cong's market said.
Demand for poultry is expected to boom during next month's Lunar New Year holidays, risking the further spread of the virus to humans.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS