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Date: Tue 9 Aug 2005 From: Mary Marshall Source: Reuters Foundation AlertNet, Tue 9 Aug 2005 [edited] _____________________________________________________________ Viet Nam: Another Avian Influenza Death --------------------------------------- Avian influenza has killed another man in Viet Nam, taking the number of deaths in Asia caused by the virus to 62. [As of Fri 5 Aug 2005, the WHO listed the number of laboratory-confirmed deaths attributable to avian influenza in East Asia since 26 Dec 2003 as 57, with 40 occurring in Viet Nam. - Mod.CP] _____________________________________________________________ The 35-year-old man died in the Mekong Delta province on 31 Jul 2005, a day after he was taken to hospital with a high fever, state newspapers stated on Tue 9 Aug 2005. The Thanh Nien newspaper stated that the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City had confirmed that the man had slaughtered and eaten 2 chickens infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The man's death took the avian influenza death toll in Viet Nam to 43, with 22 of the victims dying since the virus, which first swept through much of Asia in late 2003, returned in December 2004. [As of Fri 5 Aug 2005, the WHO figures for laboratory-confirmed deaths caused by H5N1 virus infection as 40 overall, and 20 since December 2004. - Mod.CP] _____________________________________________________________ The H5N1 avian influenza virus has also killed at least 12 people in Thailand, 4 in Cambodia, and 3 [only one of the latter confirmed by WHO - Mod.CP] in Indonesia. [H5N1 avian influenza has been reported] as far north as Siberia, although there have been no reports of human infections from there. Health experts say the H5N1 virus is now endemic in parts of Asia, including Vietnam and Thailand, despite the deaths or slaughter of tens of millions of domestic fowl. They fear the longer the virus survives, the more likely it is to mutate into a form which can pass easily between humans. If that happens, millions of people without immunity could die. -- Mary Marshall _____________________________________________________________ [The reason for the discrepancies noted above between the WHO figures and the local counts may be due more to delays in communicating results, rather than disputes over the accuracy of tests. There is still no unequivocal evidence of human-to-human transmission of H5N1 virus infection in Viet Nam; nonetheless the continuing occurrence of cases of human infection increases the likelihood of appearance of a virus variant capable of person-to-person transmission. - Mod.CP]