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HANOI - BIRD flu has killed a second Vietnamese man this week, raising the country's death toll from the virus to 50, health officials said on Friday.
Hoang Van Doan, 27, from northern Ninh Binh province, 'died of H5N1 on Thursday evening,' said Nguyen Gia Binh, a senior official at Hanoi?s Bach Mai Hospital, where the man had been treated since early last week.
'Doan died of bird flu and became the 50th death in Vietnam so far,' said Nguyen Huy Nga, director of preventive medicine at the Health Ministry, adding that people close to Doan were now being tested for the virus.
Doan had slaughtered two chickens on January 31 and fell ill two days later, said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Animal Health Department.
He was admitted to a provincial military hospital and was moved to the Hanoi hospital on February 12, where he later tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus.
He became Vietnam's third bird flu victim this year after a 40-year-old man died of pneumonia and kidney failure Wednesday at a Hanoi hospital, and a 32-year-old man died of similar symptoms on January 18.
Northern Vietnam has been in the grip of a month-long cold snap that experts say aids the spread of flu and other respiratory diseases because immune systems are weakened and people tend to spend more time indoors together. -- AFP
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