Published Date: 2007-02-26 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/MBDS> Avian influenza - MBDS region (02): Viet Nam
Archive Number: 20070226.0697

AVIAN INFLUENZA - MBDS REGION (02): VIET NAM
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A ProMED-mail post
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Date: 26 Feb 2007
From: PRO/MBDS <promed-mbds@promedmail.org>
Source: Reuters Alert Net
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HAN148080.htm>

Bird flu confirmed in chickens in northern Vietnam
-----------------------
Viet Nam confirmed a bird flu outbreak in chickens in a northern
province only 2 weeks after it announced the disease had been
contained, state media reported on Monday [26 Feb 2007].
The online newspaper VnExpress () quoted the
director of the northern province of Hai Duong's animal health
department, Dong Van Chuc, as saying tests on a flock of about 10 500
chickens confirmed the presence of a bird flu virus.
Around 70 chickens died from bird flu a week ago, Chuc said.
The entire flock was immediately culled last Sunday [?18 Feb 2007]and
no new infection had been detected since then, he said.
He did not say if it was the H5N1 virus that has killed millions of
poultry in Vietnam since it resurfaced in Asia in 2003. The virus has
killed 42 people in Vietnam and 167 worldwide.
On [13 Feb 2007], the Agriculture Ministry said bird flu had been
contained more than 2 months after the H5N1 virus re-emerged in
poultry in the southern Mekong Delta region, but officials had said
cases could emerge elsewhere in the country.
Vietnam, which has recorded the 2nd-highest number of human deaths
from H5N1 after Indonesia, has not had a human case since November 2005.
The Animal Health Department said in a report on Monday 26 Feb 2007]
that all the Mekong Delta areas where poultry had been infected since
December have passed a period of 34 days without a new case.
Agriculture officials have said new outbreaks could hit the Southeast
Asian country in March [2007] after a ban on hatching waterfowl is
lifted at the end of this month and when the effect of the most
recent poultry vaccination phase expires.
The virus has been found mainly in ducks in Vietnam. Some ducks can
carry the virus without showing symptoms, excreting it in their
droppings as they paddle through muddy rice paddies looking for
insects and left-over grain.
Neighbouring Laos has found its 1st suspected human case of bird flu
in a 15-year-old girl from an area where the virus broke out in
poultry 2 weeks ago, official media said on Monday [26 Feb 2007].
--
PRO/MBDS
<promed-mbds@promedmail.org>
[Given the documented asymptomatic shedding of H5N1 by ducks, it is
not too surprising that there has been a new geographic local in Viet
Nam reporting an outbreak of H5N1 associated poultry die off. The
rapid action on the part of the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture
and presumably accompanied by educational campaigns to prevent high
risk behavior on the part of the humans will hopefully result in
minimal to no poultry to human transmission of H5N1 infection.
Maps of Vietnamese provinces can be found at:
<http://www.angelfire.com/co/hongnam/vnmap.html> Hai Duong province
is located in the northern area of Viet Nam, not far from Nimn binh
province, where the last outbreak of avian influenza was recorded
earlier this month (Feb 2007 -- see references below). - Mod.MPP]

See Also

Avian influenza - MBDS region: Laos, RFI 20070216.0588
Avian influenza, human - MBDS region: Laos, susp, RFI 20070225.0686
[For background on the avian influenza activity in Viet Nam the below
postings from the general ProMED-mail list, found at
< 20070203.0437
Avian influenza (14): Viet Nam, Thailand, S. Korea 20070122.0295
Avian influenza (13): Japan H5N1, Viet Nam, Indonesia 20070120.0260
.............................mpp
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