Vietnam reports a new case of bird flu
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-07 12:45

A man who worked as a nurse for a bird flu patient has contracted the deadly virus, but it was unclear whether he caught the disease from the patient, a Vietnamese health official said Monday in announcing Vietnam's fifth case in two weeks.

Test results late last week showed that the 26-year-old man contracted the H5N1 virus, said Pham Van Diu, director of the provincial Preventive Medicine Center. Four of the last five cases, including one death, have been from Thai Binh.

A Thai expert writes reference numbers on an egg for tests at a laboratory in Bangkok. Thailand was mulling whether to embark on a trial of US-manufactured human bird flu vaccine, as health officials said it would take at least two months before a final decision would be made. [AFP/File]

The man, who was admitted to Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital's tropical disease unit last Monday, is in stable condition, the unit's doctor said on condition of anonymity.

The hospital is also treating a 21-year-old man and his 14-year-old sister, also from Thai Binh, and a 35-year-old woman from Hanoi, she said. A 69-year-old man had died earlier.

Health officials confirmed the latest victim had worked as a nurse at the medical center at Thai Thuy District in Thai Binh province, caring for the 21-year-old man, Diu said.

"We are investigating this case," Diu said. "But it's more likely that he contracted the disease while visiting his girlfriend in the district during Tet where poultry were served and bird flu outbreaks were reported."

Bird flu has killed a total of 46 people in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia since it surfaced in mass outbreaks on Asian poultry farms in 2003, then spread rapidly last year among birds across a wide swath of the region, devastating its poultry industry. Since bird flu re-emerged in Vietnam about 10 weeks ago, 14 people have died.

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