Fresh outbreaks in Korea and Vietnam call for major intervention

With a fourth outbreak of H5N1-caused bird flu reported in South Chungchong Province, South Korea on December 21, the Korean government called for the culling of more than 23,000 poultry on top of already 1.13 million poultry slaughtered. The agriculture ministry also destroyed 50,000 eggs and quarantined more than 1.65 million chichens and ducks within a 10 kilometer radius of the outbreak.

Vietnam too, is making drastic measures to control the spread of bird flu as three new outbreaks were belatedly reported in the Mekong Delta. None other than Hoang Van Nam, the director of the Epidemic Unit of Vietnam’s agriculture ministry himself said “the situation is alarming”.

“Our assessment is that bird flu is likely to spread far outside the outbreak confirmed localities,” Nam said. “Once the virus spread to the environment, other provinces will be affected.”

Since it was hardest hit last year, Vietnam has been successful in curbing the spread of H5N1. No new outbreak has been detected since December 2005. But if the United Nations steps in this time around, things must be really bad for our Asian neighbors.

[bangkokpost; iht.com; thanhniennews]

Tags: H5N1, bird flu, outbreaks, South Korea, Vietnam, epidemic