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Vietnam family tested for bird flu after symptoms
2006-12-30
Vietnamese health workers are testing a family for bird flu after they suffered respiratory ailments that could be linked to eating a chicken that died on their farm, officials have said. A mother and her three children have been in hospital since Monday in far southern Ca Mau, one of three provinces that have seen a resurgence of the H5N1 strain of the virus in poultry flocks this month. "We received samples of the mother and her three children late Friday and we are testing them," said Phan Van Tu of Ho Chi Minh City's Pasteur Institut. "We will first test for the H5 virus and then, possibly, for the N1 strain." Results were expected within one or two days, he said. Ca Mau health department director Huynh Trung Kien said the 37-year-old woman and her three boys aged three, seven and 13 from Nam Can commune had been admitted to Ca Mau clinic on Monday with respiratory difficulties. "The mother said six chickens owned by her family had died on the same day for unknown reasons and her husband had prepared one of the six chicken for food for the family last Saturday," he said. "We have already disinfected her family home and neighbouring properties. We have sent veterinary staff to Nam Can commune to check the situation there." Vietnam has reported no new human cases since November 2005 of the disease that killed 42 people in the country between 2003 and 2005, but animal outbreaks have now been reported in three provinces over the past month.
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