Second bird flu death in Vietnam

The public in Vietnam is warned to beware the risk of bird flu

A man in Vietnam has died from bird flu, becoming the second fatality from the virus in the country this year.

"The patient, 32, died on 25 February," said Nguyen Van Thai, head of the intensive care unit at Hanoi's tropical diseases institute.

A 23-year-old woman died from avian influenza earlier this month.

Vietnam has the world's second-highest bird flu death toll after Indonesia; three people in China have died from bird flu so far this year.

Vietnam's latest victim battled the disease for two weeks.

He had become ill after slaughtering and eating ducks his family raised in Ninh Binh, about 100 km (60 miles) south of Hanoi.

Bird flu outbreaks among poultry have spread to 13 provinces in Vietnam this year, killing or forcing the cull of more than 50,000 birds, the Department of Animal Health has said.

Bird flu has killed 54 people in Vietnam, including five last year, since it began sweeping through Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

The H5N1 virus, which has killed at least 255 people worldwide since 2003, has the potential to mutate into a new human influenza virus.

A Chinese health expert has said that the country is likely to experience an upsurge in the number of human bird flu cases in the next month or two.