A man whose brothers contracted bird flu has tested positive for the deadly virus, state-controlled media reported yesterday, as the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was investigating the possibility that one of the siblings passed the disease to another.
Vietnamese officials, however, said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in the cases. Health officials fear that the bird-flu virus could mutate into a form that can easily spread among people, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions. There is no evidence that has occurred, however.
PHOTO: AP
A 36-year-old man from northern Thai Binh province tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Pioneer newspaper quoted Vice Minister of Health Tran Chi Liem as saying.
His 47-year-old brother died on Jan. 10 from bird flu, while another brother, 42, was recovering in a hospital in Hanoi after also testing positive for the virus.
Since Dec. 30, a total of nine people have died of bird flu in Vietnam.
Health officials have said the family had eaten raw duck blood pudding late last month, linking their infections to poultry.
"From the H5N1 virus infected cases in Thai Binh recently, there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission," Liem said.
However, the WHO has not ruled out the possibility, because the middle brother cared for the elder sibling before he died.
But that alone would not raise the threat of a flu pandemic, said Peter Cordingley, spokesman for WHO's Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila. The UN agency has not yet confirmed reports of the third brother's infection.
Similar isolated cases of possible human-to-human transmission occurred in Hong Kong in 1997 and in Vietnam and Thailand last year, he said.
"WHO would not be unduly concerned about the public health implications of limited transmission of the virus from one person to another," he said.
"What would worry us is evidence of the virus being able to pass effectively between humans, thus setting off a chain of transmission. We have not seen this with the present cases, nor with previous ones," he said.
So far most human cases have been linked to contact with sick poultry.
"There is no indication that something is spreading quickly," said Hans Troedsson, the WHO representative in Vietnam.
"It's not that it has passed the threshold and opened the flood gates," he said.
Also in Vietnam, a 22-year-old woman in critical condition was being tested for the disease in Ho Chi Minh City after her younger brother died of bird flu, said Phan Van Tu, chief virologist at the city's Pasteur Institute.
Bird-flu outbreaks among poultry have been reported nationwide in Vietnam so far this year, killing or forcing the cull of more than 500,000 birds. Vietnamese authorities have ordered quarantines, stricter border controls and a ban on poultry from neighboring countries in an effort to battle the disease, fearing a repeat of last year.
Last year the virus surfaced in 10 Asian countries, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds.
The virus jumped to humans in Vietnam and Thailand, killing 29 and 12, respectively.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese