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Viet Nam Reports New Strains of Bird Flu Viruses

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 November 2005, 18:00 CST

HANOI: Vietnamese scientists have found more variations of bird flu viruses in poultry, adding to the health risk to people if these strains keep circulating, a health official said yesterday.

Dong Manh Ha, director of Ho Chi Minh City Regional Animal Health Centre, said a study conducted by the centre found new avian influenza strains of the H3 and H4 subtypes in poultry.

Scientists say strains of the H3 and H4 subtypes are capable of causing death in birds but are generally less virulent and spread more slowly than the H5 subtype they fear could trigger a human pandemic.

The H5N1 virus is endemic in poultry in several countries in Asia and has killed 64 people, including 42 in Viet Nam, since late 2003. Experts fear that H5N1 could mutate into a form that passes easily among people, triggering a pandemic.

"The presence of more subtypes of the flu virus in poultry make the virus all the more dangerous," Ha said, adding that samples had been sent to a World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) laboratory in Australia for further investigation.

State media reports said the new virus strains are H3N4 and H4N5.

Viet Nam is tackling more than a dozen H5N1 outbreaks in poultry and has stepped up culling in its two main cities. The virus is highly virulent and can kill poultry in a matter of hours. It has killed about half the people it has infected.

Source: China Daily; North American ed.

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