A 23-year-old Vietnamese man has died from bird flu, the Health Ministry said in a statement issued late Monday after several months with no fatalities from the virus.
The man died Saturday in northwestern Dien Bien province and is Vietnam's fifth fatality this year from the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, a ministry press release said.
Laboratory testing in the capital Hanoi confirmed he was positive for the virus, it said.
Vietnam early last month announced the re-emergence of bird flu among its poultry after six months with no reported outbreaks.
The country's animal health department said infected poultry were reported in nine farming households in mountainous Dien Bien province between October 21 and 23.
Animal health workers slaughtered more than 2,200 poultry in an effort to contain the outbreak, it said.
According to the World Health Organization, communist Vietnam has the world's second-highest human bird flu death toll after Indonesia. The latest fatality brings Vietnam's toll to 57.
The H5N1 virus typically spreads from birds to humans via direct contact, but experts fear it could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a pandemic.
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