An 18-year-old man who tended ducks in Can Tho City (southern Vietnam) died of H5N1 flu after having coughs and high temperatures, becoming the first person to die of the avian flu this year.
Danh Ni hailing from the southern province of Kien Giang developed flu symptoms a week ago. His condition got worse after he took some medicine.
He was later hospitalized with breathing difficulties.
Medical staff took a sample and sent it to the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute.
Ni died on January 16 at the Kien Giang General Hospital in his hometown.
Test results show he was positive for H5N1.
Le Hoang Anh, Director of the Kien Giang Health Department, said Ni caught H5N1 virus from the ducks which he tended.
Local authorities have sprayed chemicals to disinfect the area surrounding his house in Kien Giang.
Blood samples have been also taken from those contacting the patient, including his relatives and medical workers.
A two-year-old boy in Cambodia has also died of the virus this week.
The Cambodian toddler died early on Wednesday. He is the 17th person in Cambodia to die from bird flu, where fewer than 20 people are known to have become infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, Medical News Today reported.
There have been reports that the boy may have caught the virus from sick poultry in his home village.
These recent reports of deaths from H5N1 follow news in late December that a person in China had died of bird flu, their first victim in over 18 months, and reports last week that in Indonesia the virus has recently claimed the lives of three people in three months, Medical News Today continued.
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