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Vietnam ‘in control’ of bird flu outbreak

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The Vietnamese Government says it has experienced another outbreak of bird flu, weeks after it declared itself free of the disease, but stresses it has been brought under control.

The Vietnamese Government says it has experienced another outbreak of bird flu, weeks after it declared itself free of the disease, but stresses it has been brought under control. Bui Quang Anh, the director of the animal health department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, says the outbreak occurred in mid-April on a farm in the southern Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap. “The chickens were infected with H5,” he said.He insists there has been no recurrence of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus that killed 16 people in the communist nation. The Vietnamese Government declared on March 30 that bird flu had been eradicated after a 90-day infection period.At that time United Nations health experts warned that Vietnam was acting prematurely and recklessly. Vo Be Hien, head of Dong Thap’s veterinary department, says 175 chickens have died or were culled as a result of last month’s outbreak.The communist regime has been widely criticised for its lack of cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other disease control agencies in tackling its bird flu crisis. The WHO has warned that it could take months, probably years to eliminate H5N1 from the environment. Over 44 million poultry died or were slaughtered across Vietnam as a result of the disease, which was detected in 57 of its 64 provinces. (Source: ABC Health News, May 2004)


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Dates

Posted On: 8 May, 2004
Modified On: 5 December, 2013


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