Ninh Thuận Province - Credit Wikipedia
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As our attention is captured by the H7N9 outbreak in China, Vietnam continues in its battle against a more familiar viral foe; the H5N1 virus. Since it appeared in that country a decade ago, it has caused 123 known human infections, 61 of which proved fatal.
Over the past week a number of H5N1 related stories have emerged, including the declaration of an H5N1 emergency in Ninh Thuan Province, news of a locally produced vaccine to be available this summer, and a report this morning of a possible human infection in Ho Chi Minh City.
First stop, the `epidemic’ (in birds) declared in Ninh Thuan Province.
Ninh Thuan declares H5N1 flu epidemic on swallows
Tuoitrenews
Updated : 04/20/2013
After about 10,000 swallows have died and many samples of the dead birds have been tested positive with the H5N1 virus, the People’s Committee of south-central Ninh Thuan province has declared a H5N1 avian flu on swallows.
Chairman of the Committee Nguyen Duc Thanh issued the declaration of epidemic yesterday morning, following the recommendations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Thursday.
With the declaration, the province has become to be the first locality in the country to declare a bird flu epidemic on swallows, said Nguyen Xuan Binh, director of the Veterinary Office for Zone 6, under the Veterinary Department.
Vietnam was one of the earliest countries affected by the H5N1 virus, and for a time, lead the world in human cases and deaths.
Through massive educational and regulatory efforts, 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 fleeting.
After nearly 18 months of quiescence, the virus retuned in 2007. Since then, Vietnam has been engaged in a more-or-less constant battle with sporadic outbreaks of the virus in poultry, along with occasional human infections and fatalities.
So it is not surprising that the development of a home-grown H5N1 vaccine has become a high priority for Vietnam. In this announcement from late last week, we learn of the successful testing of a human H5N1 vaccine, which should be available sometime this summer.
Made-in-Vietnam H5N1 vaccine to be available in 4 months
Tuoitrenews
Updated : 04/18/2013
After a long time of researching and testing, a state-owned Vietnamese pharmaceutical company will launch a specific vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu virus on the market in four months at the soonest, the Health Ministry said.
Over the past eight years, the Company for Production of Vaccines and Biologicals No. 1, under the ministry’s Central Epidemiology Institute, has studied and tested the vaccine.
They first tested it on animals and later on volunteers with good results.
A recent test has recently been conducted on 1,000 volunteers who received two shots of the vaccine within 28 days, and the test results showed that the vaccine is effective and safe for use on humans.
Unstated in this report is the manufacturing capacity for the vaccine.
And lastly, a report (h/t Gert van der Hoek on FluTrackers) appearing today in Vietnamnet, that tells of a woman who apparently has tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
Until confirmed by the World Health Organization (which reports H5N1 now on a monthly basis), this should be regarded as a suspect case.
Despite a syntax-challenged machine translation, the details seem fairly clear:
A 20 year old girl, who ate duck meat with her family earlier this month, was treated at a local hospital for fever, cough, & chest tightness.
She was subsequently transferred to Chợ Rẫy Hospital (the largest general hospital in Ho Chi Minh City) with pneumonia - where she initially tested negative for the H5N1 virus.
A second test, performed by the Pasteur Institute, came back positive. She is now in stable condition.
The sensitivity of H5N1 testing has long been a problem, with false negatives fairly common, so multiple tests are required in order to make a diagnoses.
Vietnam : Human Avian Influenza Infection in Ho Chi Minh City
machinetranslation
23/04/2013 14:53 GMT+7
HCM City: Information about A/H5N1 flu girl
- 5 people in the same family as the duck meat 4 life, she had been infected with influenza A/H5N1. Being treated at Cho Ray Hospital HCMC, to date, has temporarily stabilize the patient.
On 23/4, Dr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Head of Medical Operations, City Health Department has confirmed as above.
It is known that the woman is Nguyen Thi Ngoc D., born 1993, lives in Long An, the 2nd A/H5N1 flu cases in humans in the southern region.
8-9/4 days, I D. the duck family live feed. Go on 11/4 sister D. appearance of fever, cough, chest tightness.
Visit patients in private clinics and local hospitals. Because treatment with no results, I D. transferred to Cho Ray Hospital.
Cho Ray Hospital, 1st test showed negative patients with influenza A/H5N1 virus but 2nd test done by the Pasteur Institute discovered Ms. D. positive for this virus.
As we learned in 2009 - when we were preoccupied with bird flu in Asia, and an H1N1 swine flu emerged in North America - it is important not to focus solely on any one single threat.
H7N9 may currently have our attention, but the novel coronavirus (NCoV), H5N1, H9N2, Nipah,an assortment of variant swine flu viruses, and scores of other pathogens are still out there, looking for an evolutionary advantage.
Nature’s laboratory never sleeps, and has proven many times that it has terrific multitasking abilities.
