Health News
Vietnam confirms first bird flu death since 2005
Jun 17, 2007, 9:54 GMT
Hanoi -- Vietnam has confirmed its fifth human case of the H5N1 avian flu virus since the beginning of May, local news agencies reported Sunday.
The patient, a 20-year-old man from Ba Vi district, some 30 kilometers west of Hanoi, died on June 10 at Hanoi's National Hospital for Tropical Diseases after being admitted two days earlier.
Media reports said Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan briefed Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Saturday, and said that tests had confirmed the patient had died of avian flu.
It was Vietnam's first death from avian flu since 2005. To date, Vietnam has reported 96 human cases and 43 deaths since the disease surfaced here in late 2003.
Currently, two avian-flu patients are being treated at Hanoi hospitals, while two others recovered and have been released.
Humans have so far been infected with avian flu mainly through coming into close contact with infected poultry. But scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, which could touch off a global pandemic that would kill millions.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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