HANOI: Vietnam has approved a new 23-million-dollar fund to tackle
bird flu after new strains of the virulent disease emerged in the communist
country this year, the health ministry said.
The fund, made up of 13 million dollars of aid and 10 million dollars
in loans from donors, aims to improve co-ordination between officials in the
health and agricultural sectors, according to the ministry's website.
"Bird flu broke out again this year with complex and unpredictable
signs," it quoted Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long as saying.
"There is currently no vaccine or effective drugs to treat people
who have picked up bird flu," he said.
The ministry will upgrade its preventive medicine systems and explore
new treatment to prevent the spread of the disease to humans, he said, adding
that it was the ministry's top priority.
Since 2003, bird flu outbreaks have killed or led to the forced culling
of millions of fowl in Vietnam, which is among the countries most affected by
the H5N1 virus in southeast Asia.
The World Health Organisation has officially confirmed 61 deaths from
the disease in Vietnam.
- AFP/al
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