posted on Sep, 16 2005 @ 09:44 AM
www.abc.net.au...
TANYA NOLAN: Hard on the news of Indonesia recording its first human case of bird flu, comes reports that six new human infections have been recorded
in Vietnam.
The World Health Organisation says it's trying to confirm the situation with the Vietnamese Government, but says it believes they are accurate. The
six people are being treated for the H5N1 strain of the virus in a Hanoi hospital.
And as Liz Foschia reports, it's a worrying development as fears increase about the spread of bird flu, which has so far killed more than 50
people.
LIZ FOSCHIA: The World Health Organisation says news of the infections is being reported locally in Vietnam.
Peter Cordingly is based in the organisation's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Manila.
PETER CORDINGLY: We've seen media reports of six people in a hospital in Hanoi being tested positive for H5N1. In fact we're not quite sure whether
it's six patients plus one doctor, or five patients plus one doctor. The media reports are a little bit contradictory, and we don't have any
official information from the Vietnamese to work on.
So basically we have to do our best guess work on this one. And this does worry us a little bit. If six people are infected in one hospital, this
would be the first time we've seen this. There's no evidence so far, not even in the media reports, or anything we've seen to date, that suggests
that there is human-to-human transmission going on in Vietnam.
But this one we will be looking at very carefully...Snip
Along with the 4th death in Indoneasia and a possible 5th infection, H5N1 seems to be suffiencently "seeding" itself for the long expected H2H
(phase 6) final step to becoming a pandemic....