Because of the complicated development of avian flu in humans, the Ministry of Health on the same day sent an urgent dispatch to ask authorities of nine bird flu-hit provinces of Dong Thap, Can Tho, Ninh Binh, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Ha Nam, Quang Nam, Hung Yen and Thai Binh to impose drastic measures against the spread of the disease.

Under the dispatch, municipal and provincial departments of health must quickly discover outbreaks and quarantine people who are suspected of having contracted the bird flu virus.

Free-range ducks - a source of bird flu widespread in the Mekong delta provinces

Health workers should keep a close watch on patients, especially those under the age of five who may have had contact with dead poultry. Department of Infection hospital wards will treat H5N1 patients, with the Ministry of Health promising to provide medical equipment for the task of disease prevention.

Vice Health Minister Trinh Quan Huan said that the ministry has required preventive medical departments, the Pasteur Institute and the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health to set up a 24-hour hotline for Type-A H5N1 flu information.

The ministry is working with World Health Organization experts to find out whether the H5N1 virus can transform, Mr. Huan added.

In additional news, the high risk of spread of the H5N1 virus in the Mekong Delta region is largely due to the local government’s lax surveillance of free-range ducks, said an official of the steering board of management on bird flu prevention in An Giang Province.

For the last three months, more ducks from other provinces have traveled to An Giang, currently reaching 3.1 million poultry, while the government only has resources enough to keep an eye on 1.2 million.

Regarding vaccination, northern Hau Giang reported that more than 2.7 million poultry have been injected to date, accounting for 94.9 percent. It was, however, just a first round vaccination.

Quang Nam’s Animal Health Department Monday stated that all recently dead poultry in the province were unvaccinated in the first round and 500,000 ducks still have not been injected to date.

Two more suspected H5N1 patients from the northern province of Thai Nguyen were taken into the National Institute for Tropical Diseases on June 4, according to the institute.

The previuos H5N1 cases are out of woods. The first patient is recovering from the disease and will be discharged from the hospital in coming days.

The Ministry said that untill now the tests confirmed only two cases hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus, the others were not infected by the virus.