HANOI, Vietnam – As experts puzzle over the rise of bird flu cases in Turkey, the country that’s been ground zero for the virus is enjoying a quiet victory: Vietnam hasn’t seen any new cases in people since November and no new poultry outbreaks have been reported in the past month.
The relief felt in Vietnam offers comfort despite the flu’s worrying appearance in Turkey. So far, the virus has not mutated to a form that spreads easily between people. The cases in Turkey are still being investigated, but experts say it appears all the people involved were in close contact with birds. There is no hard evidence pointing to any human-to-human infection.
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The European Union and drug maker Roche Holding AG increased their commitment to combating bird flu Tuesday at an international donors conference that has taken on a new sense of urgency after the first deaths from the virus were recorded outside Asia. The EU pledged about $121 million, $20 million more than it initially announced last week, and the World Health Organization said Swiss drug maker Roche has agreed to donate another 2 million courses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu. The United States intends to pledge $334 million, according to an official statement shown to The Associated Press. The World Bank has estimated up to $1.5 billion will be needed over the next three years. Associated Press |
Health experts also say the latest human infections in Eastern Europe were not unexpected.
“We’ve seen it expanding in the last two years and so to have it cause human cases in countries outside of Asia is not surprising,” said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a flu expert at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Still, he cautioned, “we’re all sort of holding on to the seat of our pants.”
As for Vietnam, Dr. Shigeru Omi, the WHO’s regional director for the Western Pacific, said an ambitious mass poultry vaccination program in the fall may have helped slow outbreaks this winter, although there is no scientific evidence.
Omi also warned that the country must still get past the Lunar New Year late this month when the transport of people and poultry is at its highest.
“Vietnam is very excited. Of course, it’s too early for us to make any conclusions to say that in Vietnam the situation is under control,” Omi said. “But … this rather silent period may indicate, partly, that their commitment paid off.”
About 120 million birds were vaccinated in Vietnam, where the bulk of human deaths have occurred. Since early October, nearly 4 million birds died or were slaughtered as 24 provinces battled outbreaks. All those areas have since gone at least 21 days with no new flare-ups, the time required to consider an outbreak contained. No new human cases have been reported since Nov. 14, according to the Health Ministry Web site.
Although the virus is now endemic in Vietnam, the communist country has taken aggressive steps to try to slow the spread, including regulating the transport of poultry and products and ridding large urban centers of live birds.
China also embarked on an ambitious poultry vaccination program, but sporadic outbreaks have continued in birds and the WHO confirmed two new human deaths last week.
So far, the virus has killed 77 people in east Asia since it re-emerged in late 2003, according to the WHO. In addition, Turkey has reported four deaths, all children, but WHO has confirmed only two.
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