H5N1 strain of bird flu infects Vietnamese man

The extremely infectious H5N1 virus that continues to spread like wild fire through Vietnam’s poultry stocks has entrapped a 30-year-old man from northern Vinh Phuc province, marking the first human bird flu case since November 2005.

The Vietnamese man infected with bird flu has been admitted to Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi, becoming the first confirmed human case in a year and half. The man remains hospitalized and breathing through a respirator after testing positive for the H5N1 virus three days ago, said Tran Quy, director of Hanoi hospital.

Tests performed at a Vietnamese laboratory confirmed the man was infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. His relatives said that he had helped in cooking chickens for a wedding reception before falling prey to the virus.

"The man is in critical condition," he said. "He has a high fever, difficulty breathing, coughing and the X-ray of his lung was completely white. All these are typical bird flu symptoms."

The World Health Organization is working with the Vietnamese government to investigate the case. The health agency will reach their decision after verifying the virus sample.

"This is the first suspected human case since November 2005 and the procedures are the government, the Health Ministry share the sample with WHO for verification at a WHO laboratory," said Hans Troedsson, the WHO's representative in Vietnam.

If the US health watchdog confirms, it would be the first human infection since 2005 in Vietnam, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus with 42 human fatalities between 2003 and November 2005.

'The virus has been circulating for a long time in the poultry. If this was to be a human case, it would not be surprising,' WHO spokeswoman Dida Connor said.

The suspected human case came just a day after Vietnam reported bird flu had killed nearly 1,900 ducks on farms across the country in the past week. As of Tuesday, animal health officials had culled 16,360 birds in four northern and central provinces and in southern Can Tho city in the Mekong delta, which has also reported bird flu outbreaks.

Most human infections have occurred after contact with birds infected with H5N1 virus, which according to the Geneva-based WHO is generally not harmful to humans, but scientists now fear the deadly H5N1 strain could mutate and become easily transmissible among people, leaving millions more to die and triggering a devastating human pandemic.

H5N1, also known as A(H5N1), is a subtype of the Influenza A virus that is capable of causing illness in many animal species, including humans, while a bird-adapted strain of H5N1, called HPAI A(H5N1) for "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type A of subtype H5N1", is the causative agent of H5N1 flu, commonly known as "avian influenza" or simply "bird flu", and is endemic in many bird populations, especially in Southeast Asia.

According to the WHO data, the strain of bird flu virus has so far infected 288 people and killed 170 of them, mostly in Southeast Asia, it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003.

WHO, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in collaboration with United States are looking into minimizing the risk of spreading of this disease and taking steps to avoid this to turn into a pandemic on a global level.