Suspected victim flees hospital
NST, 26 Nov 2005

HANOI, Fri. --- Bird flu outbreaks have continued to spread in Vietnam, while a man suspected of being infected with the virus fled a hospital quarantine unit, state-controlled media reported today.

The southern Mekong Delta province of Long An became the newest area to report bird flu outbreaks among poultry, the Department of Animal health said on its website.

Outbreaks have been reported in 19 other provinces throughout the country since October, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than one million birds, it said.

Meanwhile, a man was admitted yesterday to the Government Hospital in southern Tien Giang province with high fever and difficulty breathing, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

He was transferred to an isolation ward, left to buy personal items and never returned, it said.

The man told doctors be slaughtered his sick chickens a week before falling ill, the newspaper said. Officials in his home province have been trying to persuade the man to return to the hospital. --- AP.