A 16-year-old girl from southern Viet Nam has become infected with the bird flu strain that killed 32 people earlier this year and devastated the poultry industry across Asia, a doctor said Thursday.
 
The girl, from the southern Mekong Delta Province of Dong Thap, was in critical condition and on a respirator at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, hospital Deputy Director Tran Tinh Hien said.

Viet Nam has suffered recurring outbreaks of the disease in chicken farms - most recently in southern provinces - since a big wave of infections sickened poultry across much of Asia earlier this year.

The virus has jumped to people in Viet Nam, where it killed 20, and Thailand, where it killed 12.

The girl from Dong Thap is Viet Nam's 29th person confirmed with the disease.

"She is still in critical condition and is being hooked to a respirator," Hien said.

The girl had slaughtered a chicken she brought with her from Dong Thap Province to southern Tay Ninh province, where she was visiting her uncle. She developed the disease's typical symptoms of high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties on December 19, said Huynh Tan Kiet of the Tay Ninh provincial Preventive Medicine Center.

Most human cases of bird flu have been traced to direct contact with sick birds. The virus is not believed to have mutated into a form that can easily be passed among people.

The girl was admitted to a clinic in Tay Ninh Province late last week, before being transferred to the hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on December 26, Kiet said.

None of the uncle's eight family members have developed bird flu symptoms, and the man's house has been disinfected, he said.

Health officials were still investigating how the girl contracted the disease.

During the outbreaks earlier in the year, more than 100 million chickens and ducks were culled or died in 10 countries and territories in Asia, including more than 40 million in Viet Nam.

Animal health officials have recently warned that seasonably cool temperatures and the increased transportation of poultry between now and the Lunar New Year holiday in early February create conditions favoring the spread of the virus.

(China Daily December 31, 2004)