By AFP


Two more fatali-ties in Vietnam lifted the death toll from the bird flu to 16 today as the World Health Organisation warned that the disease was spreading so quickly that no part of Asia was safe. Eleven people have now died of 15 confirmed cases in Vietnam, which has suffered the worst human impact of the bird flu.

The latest victims were a 24-yearold man from central Lam Dong province, who died yesterday, and a 15-year-old girl from Tay Ninh in the south, who died on Jan 27, health officials said.

"Both victims tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza at the city's Pasteur Institute," Ho Chi Minh City's health department deputy director Truong Trong Hoang said.

Five people are known to have died in Thailand from the bird flu, which is the only other nation to have acknowledged human fatalities from the disease.

With 10 nations in Asia reporting outbreaks of the bird flu, the World Health Organisation warned today the epidemic was set to hit other countries in the region.

"The speed with which the virus is spreading suggests that nowhere in the region is safe," a spokesman for WHO's Manila-based Western Pacific office, Peter Cordingley, said.

"The virus is spreading faster than we can get to it." The bird flu has so far emerged in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos and South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, while Taiwan and Pakistan have reported weaker strains.

Adding to the sense of urgency, the Chinese Government demanded today a more comprehensive approach from its regions to curb the bird flu as it spread rapidly across the giant country.

"One of the tasks is to take immediate, effective surveillance, quarantine and disinfection steps to stop the epidemic spreading," VicePremier Hui Liangyu said at a meeting of the National Bird Flu Prevention Headquarters.

Hui, cited by the Xinhua news agency, said better communication and co-operation across China, where farm methods are often primitive and corruption is rife, was needed to tackle the snowballing crisis.

There are 21 bird flu outbreaks affecting 12 provinces and municipalities in China, which is the world's second-largest producer of chicken meat and the fifth-largest exporter.

China, along with Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, are among the Asian nations accused of covering up the bird flu last year when a speedy response may have headed off the emerging crisis.

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