According to the Ministry of Health, Viet Nam, one new human case of H5N1 bird flu infection has been confirmed by tests carried out at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE).
The patient was male, aged 40, from the Gia Loc district, Hai Duong province. Authorities say that on the 2nd February he developed flu-like symptoms and was hospitalized six days later. He died on Wednesday, 13th February.
Authorities inform that the patient had been in contact with infected live and dead poultry before he became ill. The Health Ministry, along with local health units have put into practice control measures, and people who had been in close contact with the patient have been identified – they are all healthy, and continue to be monitored.
So far, 103 humans in Viet Nam have become infect with the H5N1 bird flu virus strain, the virulent one, of which 49 have died.
Scientists fear that the H5N1 strain may one day mutate and become easily human-transmissible (will easily spread from human-to-human). This has not happened yet. It is still difficult for a human to catch bird flu from a bird, and even rarer for a human to infect another human.
Source – The World Health Organization
Written by – Christian Nordqvist