Avian Influenza in Vietnam

Three waves of avian influenza since late 2003

Image: Ducks Viet Nam has been one of the worst-affected countries by the current highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) panzootic. There have been three main waves of outbreaks in poultry since late 2003, with 93 confirmed human cases and 42 deaths:

December 2003-March 2004: 45 million poultry culled and 27 human cases (16 fatal). At the peak of the epidemic in early 2004, around 24 percent of Viet Nam's communes and 60 percent of towns were affected, in 57 out of Viet Nam's 64 provinces. 17 percent of Viet Nam's poultry population died or were culled. Scattered outbreaks and a small number of human cases continued through November 2004.
December 2004-March 2005: 2 million poultry culled and 64 human cases (21 fatal). The virus was detected in 670 communes during this period. Scattered outbreaks and a small number of human cases were detected through the middle of the year.
October-December 2005: 4 million poultry culled and 2 human cases. Avian influenza was detected in 276 communes during this period.

Overall, 32 provinces and municipalities have reported human infections, with a concentration around the Red River Delta provinces in the north and the Mekong Delta Region in the south, matching the distribution of poultry outbreaks.

Viet Nam's efforts to control avian influenza have been successful in recent months. As of April 2006, no new outbreaks in Viet Nam's poultry have been detected since December 2005. The last reported human case occurred in Hai Phong in the Red River Delta in mid-November 2005.

However, there remains a high risk that the virus could return to poultry and again pose a threat to humans. The virus is still thought to be circulating in bird populations within Viet Nam especially in wild birds and water fowl which can shed the virus without showing any symptoms. It is also suspected that the environment is still contaminated with H5N1 virus.

Virus outbreaks in poultry continue to be reported in neighboring countries. Recently, smuggling of live poultry across the border from China into Viet Nam has been detected.

Economic impact of Avian Influenza

Around 8 million of Viet Nam's 11 million households were estimated to be engaged in poultry production prior to 2003.

It is estimated that the direct economic impact of HPAI amounted to about 0.12 percent of GDP in 2004 alone. This represents the net effect of the negative impacts on the poultry sector compensated to some extent by the increase in substitute livestock production. The total cost of the epidemic in the first two years has been estimated to be around US$ 630 million.

Poor households who are more reliant on poultry and eggs for both income and food and financially vulnerable small commercial farmers been particularly impacted.