Man dies of bird flu in Vietnam

Reuters | November 8, 2005
By Ho Binh Minh

HANOI (Reuters) - A Vietnamese man has died of bird flu, the latest case in Asia that underlines the urgency for top health experts drawing up a strategy in Geneva to prevent the virus from spreading to humans around the globe.

Hours after Vietnam reported its latest case, Indonesia said a girl who died on Tuesday might have had bird flu.

The World Bank says a flu pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion and health experts say it is imperative to control the spread of the H5N1 avian flu virus in animals before it mutates and spreads easily among people.

The World Bank set out the possible financial cost at a three-day meeting in Geneva at which hundreds of experts are drawing up a strategy to prevent bird flu from developing into a pandemic in which millions could die.

"Normally it takes six months to design a program of this kind. We have three days," the senior U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza, David Nabarro, said at the talks, stressing the need to boost surveillance and reporting.

In Asia, where 64 people have died of bird flu since late 2003, that need is vital because many farmers live in close proximity to poultry and other livestock.

In Vietnam alone, 42 people have died from H5N1. The latest case is a 35-year-old man who died late last month after eating a chicken with his family, Nguyen Van Binh, deputy director of the Health Ministry's Preventive Medicine Department, told Reuters.

"Other members of the family are still fine, but there is a poultry market near their house," Binh said on Tuesday.

The man, from Hanoi, developed a slight fever after eating the chicken and was taken to hospital on October 26 with respiratory difficulties. He died a few days later.

World Health Organization spokeswoman Dida Connor said it was too early to know whether the latest death meant the virus had changed or become more virulent.

In the Indonesian capital, a 16-year-old girl died two days after being admitted to a Jakarta hospital suffering from high fever and pneumonia. The girl lived near a bird market.

A hospital spokesman said officials were awaiting test results.

"Based on the clinical symptoms, it looks like bird flu," said the spokesman. Nine people in Indonesia are known to have been infected with H5N1, five of whom have died.

China, which has not reported any human cases of bird flu, has asked for international help to double check whether the virus may have killed a 12-year-old girl and made two others sick.

Malaysia said it is carrying out more tests after a second flock of pigeons was found dead in the country's northwest.

"NO SOCIETY EXEMPT"

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed half of all people known to have been infected since the virus resurfaced two years ago, worrying governments about a health and economic crisis if the virus acquires the ability to pass between people.

For now, H5N1 is hard for humans to catch and remains a disease of birds, leading to the death or culling of millions of poultry. It has recently spread to eastern Europe and is expected to move into the Middle East and Africa.

World Health Organization Director-General Lee Jong-Wook told the Geneva talks that migratory birds were carrying the virus into domestic poultry flocks around the world.

He said it was only a matter of time before an avian flu virus, most likely H5N1, mutates into a pandemic form.

"We don't know when this will happen, but we know it will happen," Lee said. "No society will be exempt."

The World Bank will launch a $1 billion appeal at the conference, half of it to be provided through its grants or interest-free loans and half through a fund financed by donors.

Health officials have said compensation for farmers is a key part of any aid package after poultry flocks are culled. This provides an incentive to farmers to report outbreaks and limits the chances of more people becoming infected.

This is crucial because people can act as a mixing vessel in which H5N1 and a closely related human influenza virus could exchange genetic material when infecting the same human cell, creating a new strain for which no one has immunity.

Swiss drug company Roche said on Monday it was in talks with other drugmakers and governments to step up production of its anti-viral drug Tamiflu, seen as one of the most effective methods of fighting bird flu currently available.

The company said on Tuesday it had halted retail sales of Tamiflu in China and was instead sending all supplies to the health ministry.

The move follows similar temporary suspensions by Roche of Tamiflu supplies to pharmacies in the United States, Canada and Hong Kong to head off hoarding by flu-fearing consumers.

Last modified November 8, 2005