Bird flu death in Laos

by Kaitlin | March 5, 2007 at 09:48 am

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They're not completely sure about it yet, but odds are this woman died of bird flu. What the implications of this death are in terms of pandemic precautions will be seen in the weeks to come, I'm sure.

BANGKOK, March 5 (Reuters) - Laos believes it has had its second human death from the H5N1 bird flu virus, a 42-year-old woman who fell sick in a province near Vientiane, a senior official said on Monday.

"There's a 90 percent chance that her death was caused by H5NI, but we can't confirm that until we have a result from a WHO lab," senior Public Health Department Bounlay Phommasack said by telephone.

The laboratory tests by the World Health Organisation would take about seven days, Bounlay said.

The woman, who fell ill on Feb. 26, was believed to have touched infected chickens in her village 60 km (37 miles) from Vientiane, Bounlay had said.

It would be the second human bird flu death in landlocked Laos. The first was a 15-year-old girl who lived in the suburb of Vientiane where the virus was found in poultry in January.