The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a medical team to Vietnam to help the Asian nation combat an outbreak of bird flu that has killed at least five people.
A group of seven CDC epidemiologists and lab workers arrived in Vietnam late Monday night, joining investigators from the World Health Organization, a CDC spokesman said on Tuesday.
“They’re working for both the (Vietnam) ministries of health and agriculture,” the spokesman said.
WHO officials have said there is no sign that bird flu, also known as H5N1 virus, was being spread between humans in Vietnam. Instead, victims are believed to have contracted the respiratory disease through exposure to infected chickens.
Four children have died in the current outbreak in Vietnam, which began late last year. The dead, which also included a mother of one of the victims, all lived in the country’s northern provinces, which are dotted with farms.
No confirmed human cases of bird flu have been reported in southern Vietnam.