Vietnamese boy, 3, dies from bird flu: doctor

A three-year-old Vietnamese boy died Thursday from bird flu, a doctor in the southern city of Ho Chi Minh said.

Nguyen Tran Chinh, director of the Tropical Diseases Institute in the city said the boy had died in the afternoon.

Authorities announced earlier in the day that the child had tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus and said his condition was worsening.

The boy, who has not been named, was from the Mekong delta province of Dong Thap and was admitted to the Tropical Diseases Institute on Monday, two days before a test came back positive, said Nguyen Van Chau, director of the city's health care department.

Before the death, another doctor from the municipal Pasteur Institute, said the boy's sample would be tested again to confirm the infection.

Communist Vietnam has the world's second-highest bird flu death toll after Indonesia, with 55 deaths.

Thursday's death takes to three the number of people who have died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Vietnam this year, according to official figures.

(c) 2009 AFP