Vietnamese health officials said yesterday they suspect a second nurse who cared for a bird flu patient has contracted the disease that's killed 46 people across the region.
Dao Trong Bich, deputy director of the medical center in Thai Thuy District in northern Thai Binh province said the 41-year-old woman had cared for a 21-year-old man who tested positive for the H5N1 virus and remains in critical condition.
The nurse was admitted to Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital Thursday with a high fever, coughing and a lung infection -- typical bird flu symptoms, a doctor there said on condition of anonymity. Test results to confirm if she has bird flu are expected next week, the doctor said.
The doctor refused to speculate on how the nurse may have contracted the suspected case of bird flu.
Earlier this week, Vietnam reported that a 26-year-old male nurse who cared for the same patient had contracted the virus and is in stable condition. Officials have said they don't believe the male nurse had contracted the disease from the patient but said they couldn't rule out that possibility.
Experts have warned that if the bird flu virus mutates into a form that allows for easy transmission between humans, it could spark a global pandemic that kills millions.
So far there has been no evidence it has acquired that ability, with most bird flu infections apparently stemming from contact with sick poultry. A case of limited human-to-human transmission, between a mother and daughter, was recorded in Thailand but the virus had not changed its form.
Bich said health authorities are closely monitoring the health of two doctors and two other nurses at the center who had contact with the 21-year-old man. None of them have shown any symptoms, he added.
The 21-year-old man is at the center of a cluster of bird flu cases that include his 14-year-old sister and 80-year-old grandfather, who has the virus without showing any symptoms.
Bird flu has killed 33 people in Vietnam, 13 of them in the latest outbreak that began December 2004.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS