A duck being inoculated in Can Tho City. The government has voiced concern over inflated reports about vaccination for poultry from several provinces, fearing it could derail the fight against bird flu.

The Ministry of Health Wednesday ordered the mobilization of all materials and personnel required to combating the bird flu epidemic in 63 localities after Vietnam recorded its second fatality this year.

Both had tested positive for the H5N1 virus, the deadly strain of bird flu, the ministry’s Environment and Preventive Health Department said at a meeting Wednesday.

Both Chieu and Mui, 23, had slaughtered and eaten infected birds, the department said.

With the latest fatality, Vietnam has recorded 54 deaths since 2003, the world’s second-highest bird flu death toll after Indonesia.

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.

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.

At a meeting held Wednesday to review measures taken against the spread of bird flu, the department instructed the Central Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology to increase supply of disinfectants for Quang Ninh and Ninh Binh provinces.

Training and preparedness courses would also be organized in 63 provinces and cities, the department said.

The Health Ministry also said it would work with the Central Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology, the Ho Chi Minh City-based Pasteur Institute, and agencies concerned to increase supply of equipment and disinfectants to all provinces.

Local governments were asked to keep a close watch on the epidemic development in their localities.

According to the Animal Health Department report Wednesday, eight of 63 provinces and cities across Vietnam have been hit with the H5N1 strain.

The government has also voiced concern over the inflated vaccination results reported by localities, saying it could cost the state dear.

Some provinces had vaccinated 30- 40 percent of their poultry but reported they had inoculated 100 percent, the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper Wednesday quoted Diep Kinh Tan, the agriculture deputy minister, as saying.

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

The ministry said it was also worried about many free-range ducks at the Mekong Delta which has been in the middle of the winter-spring harvest.

The harvest, coupled with low temperatures and unseasonal rains, could pave the way for the bird flu epidemic to spread further if infected ducks were to continue roaming in the rice fields, the ministry said.

Source: TN, Agencies