Preliminary tests by Vietnam have shown the presence of the H5N1 strain in one of three people who died from bird flu, heightening fears about the return of a virus that killed 24 people in Asia earlier this year.
Vietnam’s health ministry said eight people suspected of being infected with bird flu were in hospital and authorities are investigating other deaths in southern Hau Giang province.
Hans Troedsson, Vietnam representative of the World Health Organization, said on Friday the ministry informed the U.N. body that one of three bird flu samples “preliminarily shows H5N1.”
The same strain killed 16 people in Vietnam and eight in Thailand earlier this year and outbreaks of bird flu have occurred on poultry farms in several countries in Asia in recent weeks.
The sample was from a victim who lived in Hau Giang province and had come into contact with poultry, he said. The other two cases in northern Ha Tay province were still being tested.
The Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said on Friday the victims in Ha Tay province were a 4-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl.
Adding to the sense of alarm, the health ministry is urging the immediate hospitalization of anyone with high fever who had been in contact with sick poultry.
“There is no special medicine for it and no vaccine for humans,” it said on Thursday in a statement.
Typical symptoms are coughing, high fever and sore throat. Death usually occurs within days.
Thailand, Vietnam, China and Indonesia have also reported fresh cases of bird flu in poultry in past weeks, re-igniting fears the illness could sweep across Asia just months after a mass culling campaign in which tens of millions of poultry were destroyed.
Pandemic fears
The WHO said it was concerned that human infections would result in a mutated new virus “with pandemic potential.” The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19 killed between 20 million and 50 million people worldwide. The exact source of this virulent strain is unknown but is thought to have been wild birds.
A health ministry official said on Friday that while the H5 portion of the virus had been identified, it would take more time to identify the N subtype.
Troedsson said the test for N1 is “very sensitive and difficult” and so WHO was seeking verification of the ministry’s results and offering its labs for checks. Troedsson said the WHO was prepared to fly in experts to help contain the outbreak.
The confirmed bird flu deaths come after health authorities said this week they were testing samples from four suspected bird flu victims, who died between July 30 and Aug. 2, all from Hau Giang, about 170 km (106 miles) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
The health ministry was quoted by state media on Friday as saying the one confirmed bird flu case from Hau Giang was from the cluster of four cases that had been undergoing tests.
The government has ordered the culling of all poultry in any area where the virus is detected. In addition, authorities are also killing birds within a 1 km radius of the areas, said Food and Agriculture Organization program officer Fabio Friscia.
In Thailand, the world’s fourth-largest poultry exporter last year, officials said the virus has hit 24 of its 76 provinces since the new flare up was reported on July 3, but there have been no outbreaks in new areas over the past week.
Of 32 people tested in Thai hospitals after suffering fevers and respiratory problems, none showed infection by the H5N1 virus, a Thai Health Ministry official said.
Fresh outbreaks of H5N1 have also occurred in Indonesia, but there is no evidence so far the disease had spread to people, said Tri Satya Naipospos, the director of animal health at Indonesia’s agriculture ministry.