Health News
Fourth person in Vietnam catches bird flu
Feb 28, 2012, 6:22 GMT
Hanoi - A man in south Vietnam was in critical condition after catching bird flu from a meal of duck blood, authorities said Tuesday.
The 22-year-old from Binh Duong province was the fourth person to get the virus this year, two of whom had died, the Health Ministry's Department of Preventative Medicine said in a press release.
Truong Phu Son was first taken to hospital on 17 February with a high fever and respiratory failure. Tests showed he had contracted the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Son is thought to have caught the virus from a meal of duck blood pudding, a kind of noodle soup that is served with pieces of congealed blood.
On Sunday, the Animal Health Department raided shops in Son's hometown illegally trading in live poultry and slaughtering birds, the newspaper Viet Nam News reported. The area around his home was also disinfected.
The department has prepared 1.2 million doses of vaccine against the virus which it will start using on Thursday.
There have been 121 confirmed human H5N1 infections and 61 deaths in Vietnam since the virus first appeared in the country in 2003. The virus can be passed to humans who come in contact with uncooked poultry or poultry faeces.
Read more about Vietnam Health
