Vietnam suspects first human bird-flu case since 2005

May 23, 2007, 5:00 GMT

Hanoi - A Vietnamese man was hospitalized in the country's suspected first human case of avian influenza in 18 months, a World Health Organization (WHO) official and local media said Wednesday.

If confirmed, the case would be Vietnam's first human infection by the deadly H5N1 virus since late 2005, when an aggressive poultry vaccination campaign rolled back the disease.

A 30-year-old man was being treated for suspected bird flu at Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, and initial tests were positive for H5N1, the Vietnamese newspaper Tien Phong reported.

The patient had slaughtered chickens a month ago for a wedding party in Vinh Phuc province, 60 kilometres north of Hanoi, and two days later, he suffered from high fever and breathing difficulties, the newspaper said.

Neither Vietnamese health officials nor the hospital would comment, but Hans Troedsson, the WHO representative in Vietnam, said that his office was aware of the case and was treating it as suspected bird flu.

He added that even if the man has bird flu, there was no heightened risk for the Vietnamese population, unless there are signs that the virus has mutated to spread easily among humans.

'If this is just an isolated case, it's not a turn for the worse by any means,' Troedsson said.

So far, the H5N1 virus is mainly passed on to humans through infected domestic poultry although health officials fear that if it can adapt to become a human virus, it could emerge as a pandemic influenza strain that could kill millions.

Bird flu has so far killed more than 200 people worldwide and appears to be unusually deadly - half of all people confirmed to be infected have died. Vietnam once had the highest number of human bird flu fatalities with 42 people dead since 2003, but it has since been surpassed by Indonesia with 76 deaths.

Vietnam's campaign since 2005 to fight the disease by vaccinating poultry, since there is no human vaccine, has been lauded and has reduced the disease in birds and humans.

Still, Vietnam recently has detected new bird-flu outbreaks in poultry in five provinces: Son La, Nam Dinh and Quang Ninh in the north; Nghe An in central Vietnam; and Can Tho in the south.

The new outbreaks have killed more than 2,000 ducks and chickens and prompted local veterinary authorities to cull thousands of live birds.