Dak Lak Province -Photo Credit Wikipedia
# 6216
We’ve confirmation this morning from the World Health Organization on a human infection by the H5N1 virus that I wrote about last Thursday (see Media Report: 4th Vietnamese H5N1 Case Of 2012).
After roughly 20 months without detecting a human case, Vietnam has now detected four H5N1 infections since the first of the year.
Avian influenza – situation in Viet Nam – update
12 March 2012 - The Ministry of Health, Viet Nam has reported a confirmed case of human infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in the country.
The case is a 31 year-old male from Dak Lak province. He developed symptoms on 29 February 2012 and sought health care on the same day. On 4 March 2012, he was admitted to a hospital and was diagnosed with viral pneumonia. He was transferred to a referral hospital on 5 March 2012, where he is currently being treated.
Laboratory tests were confirmed by the Pasteur Institute Ho Chi Minh City, a WHO National influenza Centre.
Epidemiological investigation indicate that the man was involved in the slaughter and consumption of sick poultry. Pasteur Institute Ho Chi Minh City and the local health sector are conducting further investigation and providing appropriate response. No close contacts of the case have reported respiratory symptoms.
To date, of the 123 confirmed cases reported in Viet Nam, 61 have been fatal.
Compared to the early outbreak years of 2004 and 2005 - a time during which they saw 90 human cases and 39 deaths - Vietnam has made considerable progress in their fight against the H5N1 bird flu virus.
By 2006, they’d gone from being the worst afflicted country in the world to being viewed as the `poster child’ for successful bird flu containment.
But that victory was short-lived.
After more than a year of near-quiescence, H5N1 retuned in 2007, and since then Vietnam has been engaged in a more-or-less constant battle with the virus.
Mostly involving sporadic outbreaks in poultry, but with occasional human infections and fatalities as well.
For now, the virus remains very difficult for humans to contract - but the concern is that the more opportunities we afford it - the better the chances are that the virus will eventually figure us out.
