Vietnam's Unbroken Run Of No Bird Flu Ends

This is extremely bad news for Vietnam...

The news from Vietnam is that a man has died from the H5N1 avian flu virus in the Ha Tay region which is just outside the capitol Hanoi. The Vietnamese deputy health minister Mr.Trinh Quan Huan officially confirmed the death and gave out details. The man was twenty years old and he died of the bird flu on the 10th June.

This is extremely bad news for Vietnam who had invested millions of pounds in educating their people and safeguarding poultry stocks from the virus and who had not had a single case of a human being infected with the H5N1 virus for seventeen months. Previously since the year 2003, forty two people had succumbed to this deadly bird flu virus making Vietnam one of the hardest hit countries in the world.

The authorities had no problem and finding out where the man had contracted the flu virus as his family business was breeding and training cocks and ducks for fighting. He was not alone in contracting the deadly bird flu virus as in all 4 other people contracted the illness at the same time.  Two of them have completely recovered however the other two are still being treated in hospital.

At this time the World Health Organisation which keeps official tallies of all bird flu cases around the world has not confirmed this new bird flu death however over the next few days after doing the required checks they are very likely to confirm it.
 
The Prime Minister in Vietnam Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung has kick started a whole new measure of initiatives and campaigns to get the people to be more aware of the dangers of bird flu and of ways to prevent it spreading.  Stringent regulations concerning the management of poultry farms have been implemented and those that do not make it to the required standard will be shut down.

The most effective drug to treat the bird flu virus is Tamiflu. Tamiflu is made by the drug company Roche which is based in Switzerland.