Thousands of chickens have died this month in 2 southern provinces of
Vietnam, but the government, battling charges of a cover-up, has
denied that bird flu is to blame, state media said Saturday [16 Oct
2004].

More than 20 000 chickens have died or fallen ill in Long An and Hau
Giang provinces, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said, adding that local
authorities had ordered farmers to destroy all sick birds.

"The bird flu epidemic has returned quickly and caused big losses to
farmers, but no information about this has been released," it said.

105 samples taken from chickens in the Vi Thanh commune of Hau Giang
resulted in 17 positive tests for H5, the virus to which bird flu
belongs, the daily said.

However, Bui Quang Anh, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development, in an interview with the newspaper, said it was
"impossible" that thousands of chickens had died.  He said that
"until now we have not received any reports from these 2 provinces".

Vietnam declared earlier in October 2004 that it had brought under
control its latest outbreaks of avian influenza, which has killed at
least 19 people in the communist nation since late 2003.

Diplomats, however, questioned whether the timing of the announcement
was linked to the influx of European and Asian leaders for the 8-9
Oct 2004 Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Hanoi.

The government also insisted that it was not covering up the disease
despite its refusal to release information on tests carried out on a
14-month-old boy who died on 5 Sep 2004 at a hospital in the capital
from suspected bird flu.

Health authorities have said the baby only tested positive for the H5
virus and have insisted that further tests were needed to determine
whether he had contracted the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu.  The
World Health Organization (WHO), however, said there was a "very high
level of suspicion" that his death was from H5N1 because it is the
only strain within the H5 subtype that has ever been shown to cause
disease in humans.

If H5N1 is eventually confirmed as the cause of death, the baby would
be Vietnam´s 20th victim of the virus since late 2003.

More than 44 million poultry have also died or been culled, with over
60 000 of the deaths coming after the government´s controversial 30
Mar 2004 declaration that it [HPAI] had been eradicated.

International disease control experts charged Hanoi with acting
prematurely and recklessly, with the WHO warning that it could take
years to eliminate the H5N1 virus from the environment.