Five people from Vietnam's northern Hai Phong city, including a veterinary staff, have recently been hospitalized after exhibiting bird flu symptoms, local media reported Monday.

The patients, including the staff of Hai Phong's Veterinary Bureau, are under treatment at the city-based Viet-Tiep Hospital and the Tropical Disease Institute in Hanoi capital, local newspaper Young People said, noting that their specimens are being tested.

Hanoi will conduct a rehearsal on fighting against potential large bird flu outbreaks among humans on Nov. 27. Accordingly, some 700 people from healthcare establishments in different districts are to complete such missions as isolating affected areas and using public buildings as hospitals to immediately receive and treat a large number of patients.

Vietnam's National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology has sent six prototypes of vaccines to be used in humans against bird flu virus strain H5N1 to the World Health Organization. If the Hanoi-based institute gets the organization's approval, it will conduct clinical trials on 20-30 local volunteers.

If the vaccines are massed produced, a dose will cost some 30, 000 Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly 1.9 US dollars), and a person will need three doses. Now, the institute has an annual production capacity of 2-3 million doses of H5N1 vaccines.

Vietnam has detected 65 human cases of bird flu infections, including 22 fatalities, in 25 cities and provinces since December 2004, the country's Health Ministry announced on Nov. 17, noting that the accumulated numbers of bird flu infections and fatalities since December 2003 are 92 and 42, respectively.

In addition to preventing bird flu outbreaks in humans, Vietnam is curbing the spread of the disease in fowls. The government, on Nov. 19, urged relevant ministries and localities nationwide to facilitate the current vaccination of poultry, and map out vaccination plans for next year.

The government also urged cities and provinces to rapidly establish quarantine checkpoints along main roads leading to their territory. Border guards, customs, market management and veterinary forces must tighten control over import of fowls and related products.

According to Vietnam's Veterinary Department under the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, Hanoi and southern Bac Lieu province have contained bird flu (detecting no new outbreaks for 25 days and 48 days, respectively), which lowers the number of affected localities nationwide to 15 with nearly 1 million poultry being culled.

However, local media on Monday reported that bird flu has appeared in a new province: Thai Nguyen in the northern region. Specimens from six chickens raised by a farmer in Co Lung commune, which died on Nov. 14, have been tested positive to bird flu virus strain H5.

Previous outbreaks starting in December 2003 killed and led to the forced culling of some 46.6 million fowls in Vietnam, causing losses of 3.5 trillion VND (221.5 million dollars).

Source: Xinhua