Vietnam bird flu toll hits 40, more infected

Bird flu has killed another Vietnamese and infected three more, taking the country's toll to 40 - half of them killed since the H5N1 virus returned in December, state-run media said on Thursday.

The victim, who was not identified, had the H5 component of the virus and died in a Hanoi hospital last week, the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper quoted a Health Ministry report as saying.

It said the report, delivered to a government meeting on Wednesday, said three of 18 patients in the isolation ward of Hanoi's National Institute for Clinical Research of Tropical Medicine were confirmed bird flu cases.

Thirteen others were suspected of being infected with the virus, while two had the human influenza.

Health Ministry officials said they could not immediately provide details of the latest victim or the new infection cases.

Tien Phong quoted Trinh Quan Huan, director of the Preventive Medicine and HIV/AIDS Control Department, as saying there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus, which has infected more than 60 people since it returned to Vietnam in December.

The virus, which arrived in Asia in late 2003, has also killed 12 Thais and four Cambodians.

While there have been no new outbreaks in poultry in recent weeks, the Vietnamese Health Ministry fears outbreaks could turn into an epidemic in the winter, when the virus seems to thrive best.