US embassy cable - 05HANOI846

UNCLAS HANOI 000846 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR CA/OCS/ACS/EAP; EAP/EX; EAP/BCLTV; OES/STC (M.GOLDBERG); 
OES/IHA (D.SINGER AND N.COMELLA) 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID/RDM/A - MFRIEDMAN 
STATE PASS HHS FOR STEIGER 
USDA FOR FAS/PASS TO APHIS 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR OSD/ISA/AP FOR LEW STERN 
DIRAFMIC FOR WENNER, MULLINS, WYMA 
USAID FOR GHB, ANE/DCAROLL, SCLEMENTS AND PCHAPLIN 
 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMED, AMGT, CASC, EAGR, TBIO, VM, AFLU 
SUBJECT: VIETNAM  - AVIAN FLU: SITUATION REPORT 
 
REF: Hanoi 752 and previous 
 
Human Cases 
--------- 
 
1.  Avian Influenza, subtype H5N1 (AI), infection has been 
confirmed in the family of five in Hai Phong (reported in 
para 4 of reftel) and these cases are now reported on the 
WHO website.  None of the five cases has resulted in death. 
 
2.  The Vietnamese National Institute for Hygiene and 
Epidemiology (NIHE) also confirms that a 10 year old girl 
who passed away in Hanoi on March 27th also tested positive 
for AI. 
 
3.  Additional cases have been reported in the foreign and 
local press, but have not been confirmed:  a 27 year old 
woman in Ha Thinh province (who reportedly drank duck 
blood), a 12 year old girl in Hai Phong (who lived near a 
poultry slaughterhouse), a woman in Hue, and a 34 year old 
male physician in Quang Ninh (who was hospitalized on Friday 
April 1st due to respiratory distress and received treatment 
for SARS before his death on Sunday April 3rd). 
 
 
Donor's Group 
------------- 
 
4.  On Thursday, April 7th, the UNDP hosted a meeting of the 
"Donor's Group" in Vietnam which focused on Avian Influenza 
related assistance.  The WHO and FAO presented a revised 
draft of their request for assistance (reported para 10, 
Hanoi 467) and reiterated their request for support.  The 
detail of this meeting will be reported septel. 
 
Timing 
------ 
 
5.  By this time last year, the 2003-2004 outbreak had 
tapered off with no new cases reported by Vietnam's MOH from 
the middle of March through July.  In fact, the GVN declared 
the outbreak `officially over' on March 31, 2004.  The fact 
that we are seeing cases into April this year may be due to 
a number of reasons, including better case identification, 
better lab assessments and confirmation, different weather 
patterns (the weather has remained cooler for longer in the 
northern provinces this year), or a change in the virus - 
although CDC and others have not reported a change. 
 
MARINE