Bird flu has killed one patient in Vietnam, the first death in the country since 2005, state-run television quoted a government report on Saturday as saying. The death brought the total death toll from bird flu in Vietnam to 43.
The patient died last week in the northern province of Ha Tay, television cited the Health Ministry report as saying. It gave no details of the gender of the deceased or how the patient became infected. World Health Organisation officials in Vietnam could not immediately be reached for comment on the death.
The last human death from bird flu in the Southeast Asian country took place in 2005, a year in which the H5N1 virus killed 19 patients out of 61 infected cases. Vietnamese officials warned early this week that more people could be infected as bird flu among ducks and chickens has spread to nearly one third of the country's 64 provinces and cities since early May.
Ha Tay is not in the watchlist of infected areas but the province lies next to Hanoi and is the biggest poultry supplier to nearly three million people in the capital. The death in Ha Tay takes the number of people in Vietnam confirmed as infected by bird flu since May to five, the Health Ministry report said.
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