Vietnam to stock bird flu drug, boost surveillance

HANOI - Vietnam, fearing fresh outbreaks of deadly bird flu this winter, will begin stockpiling the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and boost monitoring at 800 hospitals nationwide, state media reported yesterday.

Two years after the initial outbreak of the H5N1 virus which has killed more people in Vietnam than anywhere else, Hanoi plans to import 600,000 tablets of the drug before winter when the virus seems to thrive best, the Vietnam News Agency said.

It said the Health Ministry had also appealed for international help to improve early detection of suspected human cases in Vietnam, where 44 of Asia's 64 bird flu victims have died. Hanoi has not reported any new human cases recently.

The World Health Organisation said last week the H5N1 strain was mutating towards a form which could be passed between people and urged quick action to prevent a global pandemic.

The UN health body is working with a dozen Asian nations to build a regional stockpile of anti-flu drugs that could be rushed to the scene of a human outbreak within 24 hours to prevent a wider global pandemic.

Experts say Hanoi has worked hard to improve its defences since the virus first emerged in December 2003, including its current poultry vaccination programme aimed at pre-empting new outbreaks.

However, there are still worrying gaps in surveillance and reporting, said Astrid Tripodi, a coordinator with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Hanoi.

"They are better prepared. They have experience but the information is still very slow from the provinces," Tripodi told Reuters.

Last week, the United States pledged $US2.5 million ($NZ3.62 million) to enhance bird flu surveillance in Vietnam, one of nine Asian nations hit by the virus which has also killed 12 Thais, 4 Cambodians and 4 Indonesians.

However, Tripodi worried that Vietnam's vaccination programme, which targets 47 of 64 provinces and cities deemed to be "high risk", may lose momentum due to a shortage of funds.

"They have put a lot of effort into it and are mobilising people, but the international community has to help," she said.

Nearly 80 percent of Vietnam's 82 million people live in the countryside and authorities admit a huge challenge in identifying and tracking sick birds raised in village backyards.

Vaccinated birds appear to be making their way into poultry markets despite a government order that injected birds not be moved for 28 days.

"Officials have not found effective measures to stop trading and transport of the vaccinated birds," Deputy Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan told the Vietnam News Agency.

The agency quoted a government scientist as saying the early movement of vaccinated birds "would not only affect human health. It would do huge damage to poultry raisers if consumers boycott the product".

- REUTERS