Bird flu victim dies in Laos
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Bird flu victim dies in Laos*
From correspondents in Vientiane, Laos
March 05, 2007 01:45am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
A 42-year-old Laos woman believed to have contracted the deadly H5N1
bird flu virus died in hospital in the capital Vientiane, the World
Health Organisation said.
Tests had shown the woman had H5 bird flu, but the authorities were
still waiting for further results to determine whether it was the H5N1
strain.
“It is very likely it is H5N1,” WHO spokeswoman Dida Connor said.
On Tuesday, Laos confirmed its first human case of the deadly strain in
a 15-year-old girl from a different suburban district of Vientiane,
where an outbreak of H5N1 in poultry was confirmed on February 7.
The girl is being treated in a Thai hospital.
“There is no direct link (between the two cases),” Ms Connor said.
The 42-year-old victim was taken to hospital on Wednesday with severe
pneumonia and investigations are continuing into how the woman caught
the disease.
Her family members and hospital staff are being monitored closely, but
none has yet shown any sign of infection, authorities said.
Laos first reported bird flu on its poultry in January 2004 on farms
around Vientiane and in the southern Savannakhet and Champassak
provinces bordering Vietnam. The country slaughtered more than 150,000
chickens.
In July 2006, bird flu recurred in Vientiane's Xaythany district but was
contained with the culling of some 20,000 poultry.
Health experts have warned that the H5N1 virus could lead to a global
pandemic if it mutates into a form easily transmitted between humans.
According to WHO figures, 275 human cases of avian influenza have been
confirmed worldwide, with 167 deaths.