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Boy becomes fifth victim of avian flu in Vietnam

A four-year-old boy in Vietnam has died of bird flu, becoming the nation's fifth victim of the H5N1 viral strain reported this year, a health ministry official said yesterday.

"He tested positive to the H5N1 virus late last week," health ministry administrative office director Tran Hung said. "It is the first human case of H5N1 in about four months in Vietnam."

The child from Moc Chau in the mountainous northern Son La Province was admitted to a local hospital on Dec. 11 with high fever and pneumonia.

He was transferred to a Hanoi children's hospital on Dec. 14, where he died two days later, Hung said.

"His relatives told us he had eaten chicken meat and that some dead chickens had been found around his family home recently," Hung said.

Five people are confirmed to have died of the virus in Vietnam this year, the previous victim in August and 47 since late 2003 when the virus first hit poultry flocks.

The onset of cold and wet winter weather, especially in northern Vietnam, is now favoring the spread of respiratory diseases, WHO Vietnam representative Jean-Marc Olive said.

"Flus and upper respiratory infections thrive in the winter months because the virus is able to survive much longer in the environment and because people are closer together so transmission is easier," he said.

Bird flu has also again hit poultry flocks in southern Vietnam, agriculture ministry officials said. About 1,000 ducks were slaughtered last week on a farm in Tra Vinh Province after 100 animals had died and five tested positive for avian influenza, they said.
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