A young day laborer in Binh Duong has become the third bird flu (H5N1) patient in Vietnam so far this year.
Truong Phu Son, 22, is in critical condition after being admitted to the hospital two days earlier, a doctor from the HCMC Tropical Hospital said Sunday.
"He is under an intensive care program proposed by the Health Ministry. However, he is still has a fever and respiratory failure. There's not much [positive] to predict about his health," the doctor told VnExpress.
On Saturday (February 25), Truong Van Duc, director of Binh Duong Animal Health Department, confirmed with Tuoi Tre that Son had tested positive for H5N1.
Son is a native of Thanh Hoa Province’s Hoang Hoa District and had migrated to live with his uncle Tran Dinh Hau in Binh Duong’s Thu Dau Mot Town over the past year.
Binh Duong health authorities said Son had a fever on February 17 and was admitted to HCMC-based Tropical Hospital six days later.
The patient's relatives said Son had come back to Thanh Hoa during Tet and returned to Binh Duong on February 8. They said he ate chicken and duck meat and blood in both places.
Son said he had bought duck meat for food from HCMC’s Cu Chi District several days before showing symptoms of the disease.
Health authorities have taken samples of fowl in and around his home to test. People having contact with Son are also being quarantined to monitor their health.
Earlier, the bird flu virus had infected two people in the Mekong Delta, a man from Kien Giang and a woman from Soc Trang, and both of them died from the disease.
According to the latest report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, since the beginning of this year, bird flu has recurred in 11 provinces and cities.
Last week, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered authorities to tighten controls in order to curb bird flu, which is threatening to spread into an epidemic in Vietnam
Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have killed 59 people out of more than 100 infection cases, leading to the forced culling of tens of millions of fowl in Vietnam, which is among the countries most affected by H5N1.
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