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Vietnamese
PM: Flu could spell disaster |
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HANOI, Sun. --- Vietnam’s Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has warned that bird flu could spell national disaster as he hit out at lethargic health officials for failing to stem poultry outbreaks, the state Press said today. “if we let a human pandemic occur, it would be a huge disaster for the nation”, Khai was quoted as saying by the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan at a government meeting on avian influenza yesterday. “The risk of a human pandemic would be very high if avian influenza is not checked in a timely manner in the country”, he said. “The epidemic (among poultry) is continuing to break out and become more and more serious”. Vietnam ahs suffered 42 human deaths from bird flu --- the highest number of any country --- and is experiencing its third avian influenza season since late 2003. |
Khai threatened disciplinary action against officials in areas which had poorly managed the epidemic that has spread among birds in more than a quarter of Vietnam’s 64 provinces and cities since early October. “There has been tardiness and inefficiency in the fight against bird flu in several localities”, he said, deploring poor supervision by provincial authorities. Vietnamese authorities had hoped to get on top of the problem by launching mass poultry vaccinations in September. According to official figures, the drive covered half the 220 million poultry in the country. Nevertheless, about one million birds have died of the virus or been culled since early October, and poultry markets have been shut down in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other urban centres. Experts fear the virus may spread even faster in the coming winter months. |
The Food and Agriculture Organization, which is associated with the vaccination campaign that has been criticized by several experts, has said it does not yet have a clear explanation for the extent of the current outbreaks. In Berlin, the Genekam molecular biology company said yesterday that it has developed a DNA test capable of detecting the H5N1 strain of avian influenza within seven hours. Current tests carried out by cultivating cultures take several days. Genekam, which specializes in DNA technology, said the new test gives “precise” results. It said the technique would have enabled bird flu to be detected more quickly in China and would avoid giving false positive results as happened recently in Greece. --- AFP.
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