NEWS SCAN: H5N1 death in Vietnam, more pepper tied to Salmonella outbreak

Mar 17, 2010

Another H5N1 death reported in Vietnam
A new fatal case of H5N1 avian influenza was reported by the news media in Vietnam today, marking the second H5N1 death there this year. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that a 3-year-old girl from Binh Duong province died after about a week in a Ho Chi Minh City pediatric hospital. An earlier report from the Voice of Vietnam said the girl had tested positive for the virus and quoted her family as saying there are many poultry breeders in their neighborhood. The report comes on the heels of the World Health Organization's confirmation yesterday of a previously reported case in Vietnam, that of a 25-year-old woman from Hanoi. She is on a ventilator at Bach Mai Hospital, the agency said. The WHO's count, which does not yet include the 3-year-old, shows 116 H5N1 cases with 58 deaths in Vietnam.
Mar 16 WHO statement on 25-year-old woman
Mar 16 Voice of Vietnam report

Two more pepper samples contain Salmonella outbreak strain
Two more black pepper samples tested in the investigation of a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo have been found to contain the outbreak strain, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported in an update today. The FDA previously reported finding Salmonella in four samples that were collected at Daniele International, the Rhode Island firm whose sausage products have been linked to the outbreak, but the outbreak strain had been confirmed in only one of those four. Today's update says the outbreak strain was found in one sample from Wholesome Spice Co., Brooklyn, N.Y., and in one from Mincing Overseas Spice Co., Dayton, N.J. The outbreak strain was ruled out in the last of the four samples, the FDA said. As reported previously, the agency also has tested samples that other customers received from Wholesome and Mincing and found non-outbreak strains of Salmonella in two of them. Meanwhile, the case count in the outbreak reached 252, an increase of 3 since Mar 11, the agency reported.
Mar 17 FDA update