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WHO sending bird flu team to Vietnam
HANOI, Vietnam (AP)--The World Health Organization said Jan. 26 that it dispatched two epidemiologists and a laboratory specialist to Ho Chi Minh City over the weekend to investigate the first two confirmed human cases of bird flu in Vietnam's southern region.
A 13-year-old boy from Ho Chi Minh City who died Jan. 25 became Vietnam's sixth confirmed death from bird flu, the WHO said. An eight-year-old girl suffering from bird flu was in critical condition at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City.
Previously, all five of Vietnam's confirmed flu cases, all of whom died, were from the northern region around Hanoi even though the bulk of the poultry infections were from the south.
"It's confirmation for us (to see bird flu cases in the south)--something we had expected and didn't quite understand why we weren't seeing," said WHO spokesman Bob Dietz in Hanoi.
He said the three-person WHO team will focus on how the two children contracted the disease.
"The whole question of contact is one of the keys to understanding how this disease is being transmitted," Dietz said.
Family members told doctors at the hospital that their home was close to a poultry market and that several days before the girl became ill, she had bought several small ducks.
Health officials believe the disease is contracted through physical contact with sick chickens, though eating properly cooked meat and eggs is not believed to be a risk. So far, there has been no evidence of human to human transmission.
WHO officials have warned that if the avian virus mixes with the influenza virus in humans, the mutant version could be a more lethal form that allows for human transmission, fostering the next human flu pandemic.
Bird flu has ravaged Vietnam's domestic poultry industry, with some 3 million chickens that have either died or been destroyed in a bid to contain the flu's spread. The government has ordered the destruction of all poultry in affected provinces.
Health concerns are now focusing on workers who are slaughtering the chickens.
"We're asking the government to monitor the health of the workers doing the culls because we see them as the prime at-risk group. We continue to see press reports of people doing work who aren't adequately protected. That's a source of great concern for us," Dietz said.
Vietnam has asked for additional protective gear and the WHO said it has a shipment arriving Jan. 22.
Japan also announced that it has sent US$20 million in medicine for Vietnam, specifically 100,000 tablets of Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug that is being used as treatment and prevention against bird flu.
Date: 1/27/04
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