An eight-year-old girl has been confirmed as the fifth person to die in Vietnam from an outbreak of bird flu, the World Health Organisation said yesterday. The girl, from northern Ha Tay province, died on Saturday. She was taken to hospital in Hanoi on January 15 after first showing symptoms of the disease on January 11, the WHO said. ?WHO confirms this is the fifth case of death from H5N1,? said Robert Dietz, a spokesman for the U.N. agency, referring to the strain of bird flu.

The WHO says there has been no sign the disease is being spread between humans. Its victims are believed to have caught it from infected chickens and eating cooked chicken and eggs is safe, officials say. But experts are worried there might be a mixing of the avian flu with a human flu and a new, contagious deadly disease could sweep out of Asia, a year after Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome emerged and killed about 800 people around the world.

South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have also reported outbreaks of bird flu but Vietnam has been the hardest hit. As well as the five confirmed deaths there have been seven suspected avian flu deaths. While all of the confirmed human cases have occurred near the capital Hanoi, in the north of the country, the flu has struck poultry most severely in the south.

About two million chickens have been killed by the disease or have been culled as authorities try to stamp it out. The transport of chicken has been banned across much of southern Vietnam and its sale has been stopped in the country?s biggest city, Ho Chi Minh City, also in the south.

The WHO has sent an epidemiologist to Ho Chi Minh City to check on whether any human cases of bird flu have emerged there. Two hospitals in the south have been treating suspected avian flu patients. Kien Giang General Hospital said on Sunday a man showing symptoms similar to those seen in bird flu victims had died. A woman with the same symptoms was recovering.

Can Tho Pediatric Hospital said on Monday a two-month-old child died on Thursday from respiratory illness. ?We are investigating the cause of the death, but it has a possible link with bird flu,? Le Hoang Son, director of the hospital, told Reuters. Son said some chickens had apparently died of bird flu near the child?s home.

Respiratory problems

Can Tho is among the 15 provinces that have declared an outbreak of bird flu. Kien Giang, one of the southernmost provinces in Vietnam, has not reported an outbreak.

Doctors explain bird flu in humans looks similar to common flu, with high fever, sore throat and a dry cough that can deteriorate into severe respiratory problems. WHO has said it hopes a human vaccine for the disease can be available in a few weeks. The H5N1 variant of bird flu is the most deadly strain although human fatalities from avian flu are very rare.

<B>Epidemic

What is Bird Flu?</B>

The outbreaks in South Korea, Japan and Vietnam have been caused by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza viruses. Avian influenza can range from a mild disease that has only minor effects to a highly infectious fatal version. It spreads in the air and in manure. It can also be transmitted by contaminated feed, water, equipment and clothing. Clinically normal waterfowl and sea birds may introduce the virus into flocks. Broken contaminated eggs may infect chicks in incubators.

<B>How harmful is bird flu to humans </B>

Human fatalities from avian influenza are very rare and were unknown before 1997, when six people in Hong Kong died after being infected with the H5N1 strain. Early last year, a 33-year-old Hong Kong man contracted the H5N1 virus and died of pneumonia. In April 2003, a veterinarian who had been working on a Dutch farm infected with bird flu became ill with an H7 strain of the disease and died of pneumonia. The vet did not take medication against avian and human flu. Rules have been tightened to ensure anyone who comes in contact with infected farms does so.

<B> Could bird Flu become a humain epidemic?</B>

Although avian flu is very infectious in birds, it does not spread easily among humans. There is a danger, however, that an avian virus mixes with a human influenza and forms a new disease. The new virus could share genetic material from both viruses, being highly infectious like human flu and dangerously fatal like the avian variety. Humans would have no natural defence against it. New influenza strains have caused pandemics, most recently in 1956-1957 and 1967-1968, killing a combined 4.5 million people.

<B>Clinical diagnosis </B>

The World Organisation for Animal Health says the incubation period for the disease in poultry is 3-5 days. It has various affects on birds, ranging from drastic declines in egg production to sudden deaths. There is no treatment.

Christina Toh-Pantin