Monday, April 12, 2004Vietnam declares itself free of bird flu
HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnam on March 30 declared itself free of a deadly bird flu that killed 16 people here, despite repeated warnings from international experts that such an announcement was premature because the virus could easily resurface. "Bird flu among poultry on the nationwide scale is over," Minister of Agriculture Le Huy Ngo said at a press conference. "All the activities of breeding, transportation, processing, circulation and consumption of poultry returns to normal." No new outbreaks in poultry have been reported since Feb. 26, but Vietnamese health officials on March 30 finally confirmed that a 12-year-old boy from southern Tay Ninh province had died of the avian flu on March 15. The government had refused to acknowledge the death for more than a week, though test results by Ho Chi Minh City's Pasteur Institute had confirmed it. Nguyen Van Binh, deputy director general of the preventive medicine department at the Health Ministry, said the boy died from the H5N1 virus -- Vietnam's first reported human case in more than a month -- but added the death could not be linked to poultry, therefore no outbreak was ever declared in his village. Health Minister Tran Thi Trung Chien said health officials have been unable to determine the mode of transmission, and shrugged off questions about whether the death was factored into the decision to declare Vietnam bird flu free. "In Tay Ninh province, the bird flu outbreak was over a long time ago and we have carried out an investigation but it's still unclear how the boy got infected," she said. Anton Rychener, head of the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization in Hanoi, said his group had not "been consulted" on the government's decision to make the announcement and warned that it may backfire on them. "The scientific community knows the virus can live for a long, long time," he said. "We do not therefore believe that the bird flu has been eradicated." Vietnamese officials made ridding the country of bird flu a top priority after Prime Minister Phan Van Khai set the end of February as a deadline for eliminating the disease that has decimated poultry stocks across the region, hitting Vietnam the hardest. The virus jumped from poultry to people here and in Thailand, killing 24 in total. It also resulted in the mass cull of some 43 million poultry in Vietnam -- 15 percent of the country's stock. The avian influenza has cost Vietnam an estimated 1.3 trillion dong ($83.9 million) in damages. In contrast to when Vietnam won international praise for becoming the first country to declare itself free from SARS nearly a year ago, U.N. health and agriculture experts have cautioned the communist country about announcing it is clear of bird flu. "Returning to normal without having a cautious approach and careful surveillance does bring a risk of outbreaks recurring," said World Health Organization epidemiologist Peter Horby. "We've said all along that we recommend great caution in restocking activities because we can't be sure there's no virus remaining." Agriculture Minister Ngo said the announcement was made within the guidelines of Vietnamese law and should not be viewed as a sign of weakening vigilance. "We have not made a hasty announcement," he said. "Containing and eradicating the outbreak is very difficult, but maintaining that result requires even greater efforts." WHO and FAO officials have stressed that avian influenza is a far different disease than severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed five and sickened another 58 here last year. SARS was largely concentrated inside one hospital and all cases were traced back to one patient in Hanoi. Bird flu, however, fanned nationwide affecting farms in 57 of the nation's 64 cities and provinces.
Originally published Monday, April 12, 2004
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