Bird flu kills one man, infects poultry in Vietnam

Bird flu has killed a second man in Vietnam this week, infected a child and poultry in two provinces and a health official warned more people would fall sick of the virus, the government and state media said on Saturday.

The 27-year-old man died on Thursday night at a Hanoi hospital after he was taken there from the northern province of Ninh Binh on Tuesday with serious pneumonia, the official Vietnam News Agency reported.

On Jan. 31 he slaughtered two sick chickens and fell ill two days later with pneumonia symptoms, the Health Ministry has said. His death is Vietnam's third this year from bird flu.

Doctors also confirmed a 7-year-old child from the northern province of Hai Duong had the H5N1 virus and was being treated at a paediatric hospital in Hanoi, the Vietnam News Agency said without disclosing the gender or details of the infection.

Hai Duong is home to a 40-year-old man who died from bird flu on Tuesday, the 49th fatality of Vietnam's 103 confirmed cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, citing tests performed by Vietnamese health authorities.

Both provinces of Ninh Binh and Hai Duong are not on the government's bird flu watchlist, but health officials said more human infections could emerge as chicken is a popular dish at this time of the year.

"Now it is the start of spring, parties using chicken are numerous," Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Health Ministry's Preventive Medicine Department, said in an interview with the VNExpress e-newspaper (www.vnexpress.net).

"Many patients will be found in the coming days," he said, criticising poor communication as people failed to report dead poultry to the authorities.

Several people suspected of having bird flu were now being treated in Hanoi, the Vietnam News Agency said without elaborating.