Vietnam's Deputy Health Minister, Trinh Quan Huan, confirmed on Saturday that a 20-year old man from Ha Tay province near Hanoi, had died of the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu on 10th June. He is the first person in Vietnam to die of the disease in 17 months, bringing the country's death toll to 43. The dead man's family raised fighting cocks and ducks according to state media. He was diagnosed on 2nd June and admitted to hospital in Hanoi six days later. Vietnamese health officials said four other people are infected with the disease, two of whom have recovered. The other two are still undergoing treatment. The World Health Organization has not confirmed any of the country's recent five bird flu cases, including the fatal one. At a meeting of Vietnam's national bird flu committee at the weekend, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered measures be taken to increase public awareness, intensify checks on poultry movement, slaughter and vaccination, and close poultry farms that do not meet the required safety standards. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggest the disease is being spread by unvaccinated ducks that are grazing in rice fields after the ban on hatching waterfowl was lifted in March and that Vietnam should time its vaccination programmes to coincide with breeding cycles, and ensure that markets, hatcheries and slaughterhouses be kept clean at all times. After earlier outbreaks two years ago, Vietnam instigated a mass culling of millions of birds and an intensive public awareness and education programme. According to the WHO, H5N1 has infected 313 people worldwide and killed 191 of them. So far the virus can only infect humans if they come into contact with infected birds, but if the virus mutates into a form that can pass from human to human, experts believe there will be a world Pandemic with millions of deaths. The more birds that become infected with the virus, the more chance there is that it will mutate. Indonesia has been the hardest hit, with 80 people killed by the disease, out of 100 confirmed cases. The most recent fatality was a teenage girl from Kendal district, Central Java province. She died on 29th May this year. Preliminary investigations suggest she caught the virus from dead poultry. On 1st February this year, the governor of Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city of 10 million people, brought in a ban on keeping birds without a licence. This measure has been described as "ending a way of life" for the city, where keeping a few chickens in the back yard was commonplace. Thousands of birds were reported to have been culled as soon as the new rules were announced. Earlier this month, Egyptian health authorities reported that a 10 year old girl from Qena Governorate who died on the 9th of June had been infected by the deadly strain of avian influenza A(H5N1). She developed symptoms on 1st June and was admitted to hospital on the 6th. This brings Egypt's death toll to the disease to 15, out of 36 confirmed cases. Other countries that have reported confirmed human cases of deadly H5N1 this year according to the WHO, are: Cambodia (1 case, 1 death), China (3 cases, 2 deaths), Lao People's Democratic Republic (2 cases, 2 deaths), and Nigeria (1 case, 1 death). Last week the WHO announced that it was working with manufacturers to move ahead with plans to create a global stockpile of H5N1 influenza vaccine. This followed a request by the World Health Assembly in May. GlaxoSmithKline said that it will contribute to the H5N1 global vaccine stockpile. Omninvest of Hungary, Baxter and sanofi pasteur have also said they would be willing to do the same. WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, said: "This is another significant step towards creating a global resource to help the world and especially to help developing countries in case of a major outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza." "WHO welcomes this contribution from the vaccines industry and is also working with countries to develop capacity for the production of influenza vaccines," she added.

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