Vietnam has new bird flu suspects as virus spreads

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Vietnam has new bird flu suspects as virus spreads

14 Nov 2005 02:27:00 GMT

 

Source: Reuters

HANOI, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Bird flu may have infected two more people

in Vietnam, where scientists say it has mutated into a more

dangerous form which could spread in mammals, and caused outbreaks

in poultry.

 

State newspapers said on Monday a student was being tested in

hospital after eating chicken eggs along with samples from a 78-year-

old woman who died from serious pneumonia in the central province of

Quang Binh on Friday.

 

An Agriculture Ministry report said the H5N1 virus had now hit 10 of

Vietnam's 64 provinces since returning in early October. Vietnam's

death toll since the virus first arrived in late 2003 is 42.

 

The latest affected area is the northern port of Haiphong where

1,000 ducks and chickens died in four farms last week.

 

" There is much possibility that the disease spreading is due to

improper quarantine of infected poultry and poultry products, " Bui

Quang Anh, head of the ministry's animal health department, said in

an urgent message to provincial authorities.

 

Search-and-destroy task force groups must be set up to deal with

sick poultry, he said.

 

The Ho Chi Minh Pasteur Institute said its decoding of 24 samples of

the H5N1 virus taken from poultry and humans showed a significant

variation of antigen -- any foreign substance that stimulates the

body's immune system to produce antibodies.

 

" The H5N1 type that infected people and waterfowl in early 2005 has

several mutations focusing in the important functional parts of the

surface proteins, " the institute said on its Web site at www.pasteur-

hcm.org.vn.

 

" There has been a mutation allowing the virus to breed effectively

on mammal tissue and become highly virulent, " it said.

 

The study also found a mutation of the PB2 gene in a virus sample

from a patient who died in the southern Dong Thap province earlier

this year.

 

The finding showed the virus had been combining changes to adapt to

new hosts, Sunday's Quan Doi Nhan Dan newspaper quoted Cao Bao Van,

head of the Molecule Biology Department, as saying.

 

Vietnam is gearing up its battle against bird flu with Hanoi and Ho

Chi Minh City officials spreading the word about a Nov. 15 deadline

from when poultry raising will be banned in those cities.

 

The Hanoi's People Committee said live poultry will be destroyed

from Thursday if found in the capital.

 

Last week, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said police and

soldiers would be used to quarantine farms, destroy sick poultry and

man checkpoints to control poultry transportation better.

 

Bird flu has killed at least 64 people in Asia since it arrived in

2003 and became endemic in several countries.

 

Thirteen people are known to have died of bird flu in Thailand, five

in Indonesia and four in Cambodia.