Vietnam's National Hospital of Pediatrics received two more flu type A suspects, one of them is in serious condition, the hospital's deputy director Nguyen Van Loc said Saturday.

Local media reported that actually three toddlers aged around one year old, who live in the capital of Hanoi and the two northern provinces of Ha Tay and Vinh Phuc, were recently admitted to the hospital.

The national hospital is now treating four children, one of whom is expected to be discharged next Monday, two need assistance of respirators, and one is in stable conditions with simple symptoms of a temperature and cough, Loc said.

Besides old methods such as lowering temperature and using antibiotics, the hospital is giving patients a new anti-virus medicine, Loc said, adding that the hospital has so far received 14 children, 10 of them have died of bird flu type A.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, by Friday, Vietnam had a total of 21 flu type A infections and suspects under treatment in the Hospital of Pediatrics and the Institute for the Control of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi.

The Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday that two young people have been recently hospitalized in the southern province of Kien Giang with symptoms similar to those of flu type A.

To date, Vietnam has detected a total of 23 flu type A patients and suspects, of whom 13 have died of the disease. And the World Health Organization has just confirmed that four local victims tested positive to the virus H5N1 which has been found in infected poultry.

Bird flu, which has killed more than one million poultry in the last several weeks, is spreading to many northern and southern localities in Vietnam.

(Xinhua News Agency January 18, 2004)