A young woman has died in Vietnam's Mekong Delta of bird flu, the second human death reported in the country within two weeks due to the killer disease.
A 26-year-old woman from Soc Trang province in the Mekong Delta died last Saturday in hospital, news agencies reported on Thursday quoting head of the Health Ministry's Hanoi-based Department of Preventive Medicine. Post-mortem tests revealed she was infected with the H5N1 virus.
The victim had slaughtered and eaten sick chickens her family raised before she was hospitalized, th health authorities said in a report. There had also been sick and dead poultry in the woman's neighborhood, it added.
A teenaged duck farmer had died in another province of the same region of bird flu on January 16, the first death reported in the country in nearly two years.
No H5N1 infection among human beings was discovered in Vietnam last year, which saw the virus killing 151,300 domestic fowl.
In August, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned of the possibility of a major resurgence in Asia of the highly pathogenic Avian Influenza, which poses unpredictable risks to human health.
The emergence in China and Vietnam of a variant virus, known as H5N1 - 2.3.2.1, apparently able to overcome the defenses provided by existing vaccines is further cause for concern, the U.N. agency had said at that time.
The virus killed more than 340 people since it first appeared in 2003, out of which 60 deaths occurred in Vietnam, according to WHO figures.
Outbreaks in both poultry and wild birds have risen progressively with renewed geographic expansion since 2008.
Virus circulation in Vietnam poses a direct threat to Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia as well as endangering the Korean peninsula and Japan further afield. FAO has warned that wild bird migration increases the risk of spreading the virus to other continents.
Meanwhile, More Asian countries have imposed new bans on Australian poultry after Japan canceled all imports from Australia following an avian flu outbreak on two Victorian duck farms.
On Monday, Japan canceled all poultry imports from Australia, followed by Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong confining ban on import of poultry products to Victoria, according to the Australian Chicken Meat Federation.
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Market Analysis
April 10, 2026 16:21 ET Inflation data from the U.S. was the main data event this week as the conflict in the Middle East continue. The minutes of the latest Fed policy session and the survey data on the services sector also made headlines. In Europe, manufacturing orders data from Germany was in focus. Price data from China drew attention in Asia.