A street vendor sells duck noodle on a Hanoi street last Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung rebuked authorities for failing to control and prevent bird flu this week as the virus and other animal diseases spread to several new localities.

Hung said only half of the country’s inoculation target had been met.

The Health Ministry has said it is still storing some 100 million of the 250 million vaccine shots it imported last year.

At another meeting last week, the ministry’s Department of Animal Health said several veterinary agencies’ reports that some provinces had vaccinated 40- 60 percent of their poultry and cattle were inaccurate.

Some agencies had overstated the number of immunizations to collect vaccination fees from the government, the department said.

Hung also slammed local authorities for the inefficient management of slaughterhouses and poultry transport.

Hanoi recently lifted a ban on the transportation of livestock by motorbike and bicycle barely a week after it was introduced to help prevent the spread of diseases like the H5N1 avian flu.

Even during the ban, poultry, pigs and dogs destined for slaughter had been transported up and down Hanoi streets on motorbikes and bicycles.

Hung argued that bird flu awareness campaigns had yielded few positive results.

Health officials said citizens have yet to realize the seriousness of the problem and are not taking proper precautionary measures.

Chicken and poultry products are still being sold in large quantities in many bird-flu-affected provinces despite local bans. Many sellers have said they did not care about the diseases and many don’t understand the virus is dangerous to humans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said earlier this week that Vietnam had to monitor the bird flu situation more closely to prevent more deaths, AFP reported.

“The message is: stay aware, the virus is still out there and we must not be complacent,” AFP quoted Shelaye Boothey, WHO spokeswoman in Hanoi, as saying.

Hung instructed government agencies and local leaders to strengthen compulsory poultry vaccination programs and improve public awareness of the disease.

He also urged closer monitoring of the slaughter and transport of poultry to ensure the H5N1 virus would not spread to disease-free areas. The mass culling of infected poultry must be carried out quickly and swiftly, he said.

Bird flu spread its swings to another district in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang yesterday, the department said.

Last Saturday, Vietnam registered its first bird flu fatality since March 2008 as 23-year-old Ly Tai Mui of Quang Ninh Province succumbed to the virus.

The H5N1 virus typically spreads from birds to humans via direct contact, but experts fear that it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a pandemic.

According to the WHO, H5N1 has killed more than 250 people across the world since 2003.

Vietnam managed to contain the H5N1 virus in 2006, but the country recorded new cases of human infection and deaths in 2007. There were five deaths from the virus in Vietnam last year, all in the first quarter.

Source: TN, Agencies