VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s 3rd H5N1 flu case has been recorded in Binh Duong while the number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases has shot up to 600 in HCM City.

Veterinary workers are destroying ducks infected with bird flu virus in Hai Lang District in central Quang Tri Province. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Son was first hospitalized at Vu Cao Hospital in Di An Town after suffering high fever, hard breathing and low platelet count.

After his conditions worsened, he was transferred to the 4th Corps Hospital and later, HCMC Tropical Disease Hospital where doctors concluded that Son had contracted the virus.

Son has since been isolated for treatment and Binh Duong’s Preventive Health Center has coordinated with the HCMC Pasteur Institute to test blood samples of the people who have had some contact with him.

Binh Duong’s Veterinary Department has sprayed antiseptics at Son’s house and surrounding areas to ward off a possible disease outbreak.

A few days before developing the symptoms, Son ate duck meat bought from a market in HCMC’s Cu Chi District, his family said.

Meanwhile, 128 HFMD cases were recorded in HCMC from February 16-22, bringing the total number of patients so far this year to 600.

This is tens of times higher than the figure for the same period of last year, the HCMC Health Department said.

One of the patients, a resident of District 8, has died.

Last year, HFMD peaked in April-May and again in August-September, but this year the disease has sharply increased in the first months, making health officials worried about a more complex and serious epidemic situation, Tran Thanh Duong, deputy head of the department, said.

According to the National Steering Board for Avian Influenza Prevention and Control, the H5N1 bird flu has spread to 12 provinces and cities nationwide: Thanh Hoa, Quang Tri, Ha Nam, Ha Tinh, Quang Nam, Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen, Bac Giang, Soc Trang and Kien Giang.

Before Son’s case, the disease killed 2 people in Kien Giang and Soc Trang. More than 52,000 heads of poultry affected with the disease have also been culled.

The Ministryry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said an action plan to identify the different strains of the bird-flu virus in each locality would be completed by the end of this month.

After the plan is completed, appropriate vaccines for each strain will be imported and sent to the districts that need them.

However, until then, only a single type of vaccine, H5N1 Re 5, which has been used in Vietnam for the past several years, will be used.

The Ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to facilitate the import of 50 million doses of this vaccine, although it has been found not strong enough to cope with the new sub-clade 2.3.2 of the H5N1 avian flu.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre