Vietnam bird flu patient is recovering: gov't website

Vietnam’s first human avian influenza case in 10 months is showing signs of recovery, according to a statement posted on the government’s website on Thursday.

Bui Thi Thao, an eight-year-old girl from the mountainous Ba Thuoc District of Thanh Hoa Province, 153 kilometers (95 miles) south of Hanoi, no longer has a fever and didn’t need respiratory aid as of Friday, the statement said. Thao was confirmed on Tuesday as having contracted the H5N1 virus after eating sick poultry at home. “Thao has recovered after 10 days of treatment, even though she will need to stay in the hospital for another two weeks for further treatment and until tests indicate no presence of the virus,” according to the statement. Thao’s elder sister, Bui Thi Thuong, died last Friday, the statement said, citing Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, standing director of the province’s Department of Health. Her death may not be related to the H5N1 strain of avian flu virus, according to Vietnamese authorities. There is not enough evidence to show her death was caused by bird flu as no samples were taken, even though she also ate the sick bird and had similar symptoms to her sister, the statement said. The H5N1 virus in meat and eggs is killed when it is heated above 70 degrees Celsius, making properly cooked poultry meat and eggs safe to consume. Thuong developed fever, fatigue, stomach pains and digestive disorders on December 29, two days after her younger sister fell ill, the statement said. At the local district hospital she was diagnosed with appendicitis, the statement said. She later encountered multiple organ failure and doctors said she had typhoid fever before she died last Friday, according to the statement. The H5N1 viral strain killed five people in early 2008 but no new human deaths have been reported since last March. Vietnam has confirmed 52 bird flu deaths, the second highest toll after Indonesia with 113 deaths so far. Since 2003, the World Health Organization has reported 393 human cases of bird flu, not including the latest case in Vietnam, of which 248 have died. Source: Bloomberg, Reuters