Bird flu spreads to a quarter of Vietnam's provinces
Printed November 18, 2005 at Netscape.com

HANOI (AFP) - Bird flu has spread to more than a quarter of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities since early last month, with the cooler north the worst-hit region.

Outbreaks were reported in three more northern provinces, taking the total number to 17 provinces. Thirteen of them, including the capital Hanoi, are in northern Vietnam, a senior agriculture ministry official said.

"The bird flu situation is more worrying in the north, where the current winter weather favours the growth of the H5N1 virus", the ministry's animal health department deputy director Hoang Van Nam told AFP.

While drastic measures have been taken in Hanoi, such as closing down poultry markets and carrying out mass culls of fowl, outbreaks have spread in several surrounding provinces, Nam said.

Astrid Tripodi, the Food and Agriculture Organisation's avian influenza coordinator in Hanoi, cautioned against blaming the weather alone, saying, "there may be other factors that have to be looked at".

"With the cold weather the lifetime of the virus is improved. That can be one of the explanations," Tripodi said.

"We still need to research: Where is the virus hiding in the environment? Why is it happening at the same time? Are there other factors?"

Another agriculture ministry official blamed poor supervision on the part of provincial health authorities for the outbreaks.

"The absence of coordinated preventive measures as well as lethargy on the part of localities, which failed to discover new outbreaks in time, is leading to the fast spread of bird flu," said the official, who did not want to be named.

Hanoi is meanwhile getting ready to stage a major exercise in the capital next week to test the preparedness of hospitals to deal with a large number of human bird flu cases.

Authorities in the capital and in the southern economic hub, Ho Chi Minh City, will also seek to ensure no live poultry is left in the two cities, which together account for 10 million of Vietnam's 82 million people.

Vietnam, which has suffered the highest number of human deaths from bird flu, is experiencing its third avian influenza season since late 2003.

The government has announced it will spend an additional 82 million dollars to fight bird flu. Vietnam, which estimates it will need 50 million dollars in outside assistance, has received 10 million dollars in foreign aid.

The country last week reported its first human bird flu death in more than three months, raising to 42 the number of fatalities.

Nearly 70 human deaths from bird flu have occurred so far, according to World Health Organisation figures, with China the latest country to announce a confirmed fatality this week. Deaths have also occurred in Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate and combine with human flu variants, making it easily transmissible among humans and creating a global pandemic.