Home>News Center>World
         
 

Vietnam family of 5 confirmed with bird flu
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-29 13:36

HANOI - A Vietnamese couple and their three children have been infected by Asia's bird flu in the latest human cases of the deadly virus which has killed 49 people since the end of 2003, state media reported on Tuesday.

Vietnam family of 5 confirmed with bird flu
A man leaves a poultry market in Hanoi with live chickens hanging from his bicycle. Intitial tests on five members of a family raising chickens in Vietnam's northeastern city of Haiphong have shown positive for bird flu. [AFP]
The five, from a district where bird flu had killed poultry, were sent to hospital in the northern port of Haiphong last week suffering fevers and breathing problems.

Preliminary tests on the 39-year-old man, his wife and their three daughters -- aged between four months and 10 years -- confirmed they had the deadly H5N1 variant of the virus, the Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Doctors and officials could not be reached for comment, but the newspaper said the family had eaten sick chickens after more than half of their 400 birds died earlier this month.

Bird flu swept across the region in early 2003 has killed 35 people in Vietnam, 13 of them since late December when the disease broke out anew in the southern Mekong Delta. It has spread to more than one third of Vietnam's 64 provinces.

The virus, which has also claimed 12 Thais and two Cambodians, has killed about 70 percent of the people known to have been infected, but it does not pass easily from bird to humans and eating infected fowl cooked properly is not dangerous.

Experts fear that if the virus could mutate into a more contagious form and jump between humans, it could unlash a global pandemic of killer flu and that millions could die.



USS Park Royal crew await for Rice
Coffin of Milosevic flew to Belgrade
Kidnapping spree in Gaza Strip
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Australia, US, Japan praise China for Asia engagement

 

   
 

Banker: China doing its best on flexible yuan

 

   
 

Hopes high for oil pipeline deal

 

   
 

Possibilities of bird flu outbreaks reduced

 

   
 

Milosevic buried after emotional farewell

 

   
 

China considers trade contracts in India

 

   
  Journalist's alleged killers held in Iraq
   
  No poisons found in Milosevic's body
   
  US, Britain, France upbeat on Iran agreement
   
  Fatah officials call for Abbas to resign
   
  Sectarian violence increases in Iraq
   
  US support for troops in Iraq hits new low
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
Manufacturers, Exporters, Wholesalers - Global trade starts here.
Advertisement