Vietnam on Saturday reported two more bird flu deaths thus bringing the human toll to nine in three weeks said the report by World Health Organisation.
A report released by the WHO has confirmed that a 42-year-old man is suffering from bird flu and is being treated in a hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. The man's older brother, a 46-year-old resident of Thai Binh Province, died on January 9 from bird flu, the WHO said in a written statement.
This has ringed the alarm bells with the experts saying another influenza pandemic is inevitable.
The organization had said earlier this week it was aware of the report of the 42-year-old man's infection and was seeking confirmation from the Ministry of Health. He was looking after his older brother, who was treated at the same Hanoi hospital. The younger man first developed symptoms on January 10, nine days after his brother fell ill, the WHO said.
The case has raised fears of possible human-to-human transmission, but WHO says that isolated instances of transmission among humans can be expected and would not raise the threat of a pandemic. Vietnamese officials have also said the two brothers may have been infected when their family ate duck blood pudding that had not been boiled.
"If it is one of these very isolated and sporadic cases, there's not a major concern since it seems that you have to be in very close contact and that you could protect yourself against it," Troedsson said. "But if we would see that the virus would change, having the capability to spread human-to-human much more easily, then, of course, that would be the worst element of our concern."
About 410,000 birds have died or been slaughtered in Vietnam this year, with about half of those deaths occurring this week, according to government figures.
Thailand also reported its first outbreak of bird flu in poultry in two months. No human cases have been reported there in recent months, but WHO officials have warned that surveillance must remain high despite attention focused on helping victims of last month's tsunami in southern Thailand.
Last year, the virus spread to 10 Asian countries, killing or forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds.
