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Asian bird flu toll mounts as Vietnamese girl dies
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Asian bird flu toll mounts as Vietnamese girl dies
The human death toll from Asia?s bird flu outbreak rose to 14 yesterday as a Vietnamese woman died from the highly infectious virus that is ravaging poultry flocks in 10 countries and, most worryingly, spreading in China.
Guangdong, the southern Chinese province from which the SARS virus emerged, affecting 30 countries last year and killing nearly 800 people, has confirmed discovery of the H5N1 avian virus thought to be carried by migrating birds.
Now 12 of the vast country?s 31 provinces have confirmed or suspected outbreaks of the disease.
China has yet to report any human infections, unlike badly hit Thailand with 19 suspected cases as well as four confirmed deaths from the disease.
Vietnam reported its 10th bird flu death, a 17-year-old woman. All 14 deaths in the region so far are believed to have resulted from direct contact with infected poultry.
But Guangdong, where people live cheek by jowl with poultry and other farm animals, is widely regarded as a breeding ground for bugs which could cause a pandemic in humans.
That is still regarded as a remote threat and the World Health Organisation said the possibility that two Vietnamese sisters might have caught bird flu from their brother did not mean a pandemic was any nearer.
But, WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley said, the battle against bird flu was not being won.
?We are looking at a very serious situation in terms of the virus in the poultry world,? he told Reuters Television in Manila. ?At the moment, we are losing more than we are winning.?
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