Bird flu has just been detected in Hanoi capital city and northern Ha Nam province, raising the total number of localities hit by the disease to 16, local newspaper Youth on Saturday quoted the country´s Animal Health Department assaying.

    The bird flu was spotted in a flock of 400 ducks, a flock of 600 chickens in Hanoi´s Long Bien urban district, and a flock of 100 ducks in Ha Nam´s Ly Nhan district.

    Since last December, Vietnam has detected 84 outbreaks in 16 cities and provinces, namely Hanoi, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Lam Dong, Ben Tre, Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Tien Giang, Can Tho, Binh Phuoc, An Giang, Dong Thap, Long An, Tra Vinh, Bac Lieu and Hau Giang, which have killed and led to the forced killing of nearly 168,000 fowls.

    Also, the country has recently discovered six human cases of bird flu infections, at least four of them died.

    To curb the spread of bird flu among poultry and persons, Vietnam is considering the possibility of vaccinating fowls and researching into vaccines for humans.

    "With the permission of the Ministry of Health, we are probing into vaccines to prevent people from bird flu. We hope that there will be vaccines for experiment in the coming time," said Pham Ngoc Dinh, deputy director of the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology.

    Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, on Friday, asked People´s Committees in cities and provinces and some ministries to mobilizeall forces to isolate and then contain new bird flu outbreaks, andmonitor the transport and trade of fowls more closely to prevent potential spread of the disease.

    After facing bird flu outbreaks from December 2003, Vietnam, inlate March 2004, declared an end to the bird flu that killed 17 percent of its poultry population, causing a total loss of 1.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (82.8 million dollars) to the local poultry industry. Since December, the disease has killed at least 24 people in the country.