VIETNAM: FOUR PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM BIRD FLU

Record ID: 647441

  • Title: VIETNAM: FOUR PEOPLE HAVE DIED FROM BIRD FLU
  • Date: 16th January 2004
  • Summary: (U2) HANOI, VIETNAM (JANUARY 17, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE / PAN OF ENTRANCE TO NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOR PAEDIATRICS WHERE ONE OF THE BIRD FLU CASES IS BEING TREATED 0.07 2. VARIOUS OF PARENTS BRINGING CHILDREN TO HOSPITAL FOR CHECK-UPS (2 SHOTS) 0.21 3. SLV ENTRANCE TO HOSPITAL 0.27 4. SMV YOUNG CHILD IN MOTHER'S ARMS 0.33 5. SMV MOTHER CARRYING LITTLE GIRL ALONG STREET 0.39 6. SMV FATHER WITH CHILD ON SEAT OF MOTOR SCOOTER WEARING FACE MASK AND DRAPED IN NET COVERING 0.45 7. SLV PEOPLE WALKING BY HOSPITAL ENTRANCE 0.53 (U2) HANOI, VIETNAM (JANUARY 16, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY EU HEALTH COMMISSIONER DAVID BYRNE 0.58 9. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BYRNE SAYING: "I made it clear that the WHO was engaging itself in this problem, providing advice and I also said that the expert advice from the European Union would be made available to the WHO and to the authorities here in Vietnam." 1.21 10. SMV MEDIA 1.27 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BYRNE SAYING: "This is a problem that we have already had in the European Union on two occasions. Last year in the Netherlands there was a very big outbreak of bird flu which caused a lot of difficulty requiring the slaughter of a lot of birds and cost a lot of money." 1.43 12. WIDE OF MEDIA 1.48 13. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) BYRNE SAYING: "A team of EU experts is on standby to travel to Vietnam if necessary and if requested." 1.56 14. VARIOUS OF POULTRY MARKET 2.02 15. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BUYING CHICKENS 2.15 16. PAN OF CHICKENS IN CAGE 2.21 17. VARIOUS OF [PEOPLE BUYING CHICKENS 2.28 18. SLV OF FRUIT STALL IN MARKET 2.32 19. CLOSE OF COOKED CHICKENS ON SALE (2 SHOTS) 2.44 20. VARIOUS OF VENDORS AND COOKED CHICKEN 2.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 31st January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HANOI, VIETNAM
  • Country: Vietnam
  • Reuters ID: LVAC90JRS6RCK6ESR7W9M0H8W0KJ
  • Story Text: Deaths from bird flu rise to four in Vietnam.




    The number of Vietnam's confirmed bird flu deaths
    has risen to four, the World Health Organisation said,
    while a hospital in the south of the country said on
    Saturday (January 17) it had two very sick patients with
    bird flu symptoms.

    The U.N. health agency, which is helping Vietnam battle
    the fast-spreading disease, said a five-year-old boy, from
    Nam Dinh province, died on January 8 from bird flu. Nam
    Dinh is about 100 km (60 miles) south of the capital Hanoi.

    EU Health Commissioner David Byrne told a news
    conference on Saturday in Hanoi that the European Union has
    been advising with their experience of the bird flu.

    "I made it clear that the WHO was engaging itself in
    this problem, providing advice and I also said that the
    expert advice from the European Union would be made
    available to the WHO and to the authorities here in
    Vietnam," Byrne said.

    South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have also reported
    outbreaks of bird flu but Vietnam has been the hardest hit.

    The cases have raised fears of a new deadly epidemic
    sweeping out of the region that saw an outbreak of Severe
    Acute Respiratory Syndrome spread around the world last
    year and kill about 800 people.

    All of Vietnam's confirmed cases, plus eight other
    human flu deaths under investigation, were from the north.

    But a hospital in the southern province of Kien Giang said
    it was treating a woman and man, both in their twenties,
    for serious influenza infection.

    Vietnam has reported a total of 18 suspected cases of
    bird flu in humans with 12 deaths suspected of being linked
    to it.

    The type of avian flu virus that caused the four
    confirmed bird flu deaths is similar to a variant that
    struck Hong Kong in 1997, killing six people.

    But the WHO said it had found no evidence of
    human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus.

    There had been an increase in respiratory cases in
    Hanoi's hospitals but they had not been proven to be bird
    flu, the WHO said.

    The virus has resulted in the death or slaughter of
    nearly two million chickens in Vietnam and bans on the sale
    of poultry in its biggest city, Ho Chi Minh City, in the
    south.

    The WHO has four experts advising the government on how
    to stem the disease.

    More experts from the WHO, as well as from the U.S.

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and
    Agriculture Organisation were expected to arrive in coming
    days, the WHO said.

    A total of 14 provinces in Vietnam have declared
    outbreaks of bird flu, half in the north and half in the
    south. The communist country has 64 provinces and major
    cities.

    Vietnam has ordered that farms and villages reporting
    bird flu destroy all poultry in their vicinity, but has not
    sought mass destruction of fowl in the 14 provinces.

    Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken producers,
    says it has no bird flu but will inspect every poultry farm
    in the country to halt the spread of cholera among
    chickens, a Thai official said on Friday.



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