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Large crowds, people traveling, and the consumption of duck and poultry on a massive scale all are risk factors in an area where the H5N1 virus is prevalent. Next week Vietnam celebrates Tet Doan Ngo and all of those risk factors come together.
This from Thanh Nien News.
Minister concerned over possible bird flu outbreak next week
The Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture expressed concern that a traditional festival next week could bring about a bird flu epidemic amidst mass chicken sales. Two people tested positive for HN51 last week.
Minister Cao Duc Phat said that next Tuesday’s Tet Doan Ngo festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, is usually reserved for traditional chicken and duck feasts to ring in the middle of the year.
The celebration comes at the close of the fowl harvesting season in northern Vietnam’s Red River Delta, meaning fowls sell fast, he added.
The minister advised people against eating fowls with unclear origins, or those showing signs of sickness or of having been dead long before being cooked.
Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Ministry of Health’s Preventative Health Department, also announced Tuesday that two more people have been hospitalized infections of H5N1, the deadly bird flu strain.
In total, 5 have been infected with H5N1 since May.
At least one of them is in critical condition, relying on respirators.
