The Vietnamese government and the United Nations (UN) agreed in Hanoi Tuesday to conduct the second phase of a joint program on preventing and controlling bird flu in the country, according to Vietnam News Agency.

Donors have pledged to fund the second phase to the tune of 16. 2 million U.S. dollars, up from over 7.1 million dollars they disbursed for the first phase.

Also on Tuesday, the United States, Japan and Ireland pledged to fund three other anti-bird flu projects in Vietnam totaling 4 million dollars, said the news agency.

In October 2005, the Vietnamese government and the U.N. signed the joint program whose objectives are to control and eradicate bird flu in domestic poultry; strengthen both national and local capacity to detect, diagnose, monitor and control outbreaks; and help Vietnam prepare for, respond to and recover from public health emergencies such as bird flu.

Bird flu outbreaks, starting in Vietnam in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls.

To date, Vietnam has detected 93 bird flu patients, including 42 fatalities, in 32 localities, the Vietnamese Health Ministry said on Jan. 8, noting that it has seen no new human cases of infections since mid-November 2005.

Source: Xinhua