Via Viet Nam News: Experts call for bird flu control strategy. Excerpt:
The latest outbreak of bird flu has affected the provinces of Dien Bien and Nam Dinh in the north, Nghe An and Khanh Hoa in the central region, and Soc Trang and Ca Mau in the south, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development representative Hoang Van Nam told a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday.
“Bird flu has continued to spread in these provinces and killed thousands of poultry since its re-emergence in December, despite efforts to prevent contagion,” Nam told the gathering of governmental experts and representatives from the UNDP and non-governmental organisations.
Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine and Environment, said that since the first bird flu case in 2003, 115 human cases had been reported in Viet Nam, 58 of which resulted in deaths.
In 2010, three human cases have been reported in the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Tien Giang and Tuyen Quang, resulting in one death.
The threat of a human epidemic of bird flu has risen due to the continued presence of the virus among poultry and because public awareness of proper handling and preparation of poultry remained low.
The risk was particularly high in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region as ducks were migrating during harvest time.
About 95 per cent of human cases showed the person had a history of exposure to poultry infected with the A/H5N1 virus, Nga said, noting that the evidence of human-to-human transmission remained scant – although there were instances in which groups of infected persons had lived in the same households.
The Integrated National Operational Programme for Avian Influenza 2006-10, commonly known as the Green Book, would help reduce the health risk to humans from bird flu by instituting methods to control the disease at its source in domestic poultry, detecting and responding promptly to human cases, and preparing for the medical consequences of a human pandemic, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong.
The total cost for the programme from the State budget, public sector and ODA was estimated at US$250 million, Bong said.
