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Roundup: First Vietnamese Dies of Bird Flu Virus H3N0 After World Health Experts Work Out Steps to Fight H5N1

Posted on: Thursday, 10 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Roundup: First Vietnamese dies of bird flu virus H3N0 after world health experts work out steps to fight H5N1

BEIJING, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- After world health experts and officials set out key steps to halt the spread of H5N1 bird flu virus at a Geneva meeting on Wednesday, a 43-year-old Vietnamese died of infection of bird flu virus H3N0 on Thursday.

Tests by Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed that specimens from the man named Vu Van Nhat from the northern city Hai Phong, who died on Nov. 2 from respiratory failure, were positive to flu type A, subtype H3N0, local newspaper Pioneer reported

Nhat was admitted to a hospital on Nov. 1 after returning home from southern Vung Tau city. During his stay in the southern city, he ate poultry meat.

The hospital suspected that the patient was infected with flu type A, subtype H5N1. However, the tests concluded that he was infected with subtype H3N0 which is less dangerous than the subtype H5N1.

The new finding surfaced after the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday one more case of human infection with H5N1 virus had been confirmed in Vietnam.

In Geneva, health experts unveiled a plan of 1 billion US dollars on Wednesday to halt the spread of bird flu.

The global action plan is aimed at rooting out bird flu among poultry and stopping it from spawning a human influenza pandemic.

More than 600 delegates from over 100 countries agreed there is an urgent need for financial and other resources for countries which have been affected by bird flu and those which are most at risk, and to identify and respond to a human pandemic the moment it emerges.

"The world recognizes that this is a major public health challenge," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook said in his conclusions to the three-day meeting.

Experts and officials set out key steps that must be taken in response to the threat of the H5N1 flu virus which is currently circulating in animals in Asia and has been identified in parts of Europe.

The steps included control at source in birds, surveillance, rapid containment, pandemic preparedness, integrated country plans, and communications.

David Nabarro, Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, said: "We must use all our assets and skills to the best effect, avoid duplication, share expertise, learn from our experiences and tune up our ways of working."

"We must focus on support for existing country mechanisms and provide integrated global joint plans, programs and monitoring," he added.

The meeting was co-organized by the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Bank. Participants also discussed key financing needs for countries in the short-, medium- and long-term.

According to an analysis presented by the World Bank, the needs of affected countries will potentially reach 1 billion US dollars over the next three years. This does not include financing for human or animal vaccine development, for antiviral medicines or for compensating farmers for loss of income due to animals which have been culled.

The meeting supported an urgent resource request for 35 million dollars to fund high-priority actions by the WHO, FAO and OIE over the next six months. Additionally, surveillance, control and preparedness work in countries requires urgent funding.

"Based on our work here in Geneva over the past three days, we now have a strong business plan to take to the donors financial conference in Beijing in mid-January," said James Adams, vice- president of the World Bank for Operations and head of the Bank's Avian Flu Taskforce.

The urgency of fighting bird flu was underlined after Indonesia reported on Wednesday what it confirmed would be the 65th death blamed on the H5N1 virus since late 2003.

The victim lived in an East Jakarta suburb near a bird market and had chickens and pet birds in her house. However, no evidence of contact with an infected bird has been established.

Czech chief sanitary officer Michael Vit said on Tuesday the republic will buy another influenza drug, Relenza, to enlarge its stockpile of medicine that could be used against bird flu,

The Czech Republic has 600,000 doses of Tamiflu at present and it has ordered the delivery of another 600,000 doses next year. The amount would be sufficient for 13 percent of the populations, Vit said.

Meanwhile Bulgaria, free of bird flu cases so far, will lift the ban on live birds and nearly all poultry products from Greece, where the outbreak of bird flu in last month has proved a false alarm.

Under a decree signed Tuesday by Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil, the Balkan country will renew imports of live birds, eggs, poultry meat and poultry-related products that are proven to be virus-free.

Bulgaria has still kept bans on imports of poultry products from Romania, Turkey, Macedonia and Croatia.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called on the nation to intensify efforts to fight bird flu as the country is facing a "very serious situation" in controlling the epidemic.

Bird flu has not been totally controlled in China and the danger of its spread still exists in some areas, the premier said during an inspection tour of the bird flu-hit Heishan County in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Tuesday.

He urged the local governments to pay great attention to the epidemic and focus on the prevention of the disease from jumping to humans, a task he said is "arduous."

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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