Avian influenza – situation in Viet Nam – update 3

14 January 2005

WHO has received informal reports of two additional cases of H5N1 infection in Viet Nam. The cases are an 18-year-old woman from Hau Giang Province and a 35-year-old woman from Tra Vinh Province.

The 18-year-old woman was hospitalized on 1 January and died on 10 January. The 35-year old woman was hospitalized on 9 January and remains in critical condition.

Both patients are from provinces in the southern part of the country, where poultry outbreaks have been reported since the beginning of December.

If confirmed, these latest human cases will bring the total in Viet Nam, since mid-December 2004, to six. Of these, four have died.