Apr 5, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Vietnamese health officials today announced that a man from Bac Kan province is infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus, a day after Egypt's health ministry confirmed another human case.
The Vietnamese man, age 22, is hospitalized in critical condition at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Voice of Vietnam (VOV) News reported today. He got sick on Mar 30 with symptoms that included high fever and a cough. He was taken to a provincial hospital before he was transferred. If the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the man's case, he will be listed at Vietnam's 118th case, of which 59 have been fatal.
Four other people from the man's commune, located in northern Vietnam, have similar symptoms, are under isolation, and are undergoing treatment at the provincial hospital in Bac Kan, according to the VOV news report.
Meanwhile, Egypt's health ministry yesterday confirmed another human case of H5N1 avian flu, bringing the nation's total to 109 since the disease arrived there in 2006, according to a report from Egypt's State Information Service. The patient is in an 18-year-old woman from Al-Fayyoum governorate, about 81 miles southwest of Cairo. She is suffering from a fever and breathing difficulty.
She has been in the Al-Fayyoum Fever Hospital since Mar 31, the report said. The case has not yet been recognized by the WHO, which counts 18 cases and 6 deaths in Egypt so far this year.
If the WHO confirms both cases, the global H5N1 count will rise to 494, including 291 deaths.
