Experts continue to study bird flu in Vietnam

cctv.com 02-11-2004 09:15

A team of Hong Kong experts has joined World Health Organization efforts to contain the bird flu outbreak. The team arrived in Vietnam the day before another Vietnamese man died from the disease on Monday. The latest victim takes Asia's death toll from the virus to 19.

Although many children have been recovering from infections of the bird flu, this young boy is in a critical condition. His mother hopes he will survive and slowly recover. But doctors say his chances are slim.

A WHO report says that the H5N1 virus is not spreading from person to person, suggesting it has not yet mutated into a form that might well lead to a global epidemic in humans.

The health experts in Vietnam are hoping to come to some sort of understanding of the virus, while some say it's too early to talk about the specifications.

Pascale Brudon, Vietnam Representative of World Health Organization, said:鈥I don't think we can tell because this outbreak is all over the region...it's clear that we have such a big outbreak, we may have more cases in human, more transmission from poultry. What is important is to make sure that we have less and less humans infected by bird flu because the more we have human cases, the more we may have a chance for the virus to change and the more we have a chance for a global outbreak."

Fourteen people have died of the disease in Vietnam so far. Official figures show that the influenza has now hit 2,319 counties in the country, some 22 percent of the total.

The Asian Development Bank and the WHO donated hundreds of surgical masks and gloves to Vietnam at a formal handover ceremony in the capital Hanoi on Sunday. Vice Minister of the Vietnamese Agricultural and Rural Development Department, Bui Ba Bong (Booy Bah-Bong) collected the donation on behalf of the country.

Editor:Zheng  Source:CCTV.com