Vietnamese scientists decode gene of bird flu virus

H5N1 Virus

Vietnamese scientists have decoded the gene of H5N1 virus, paving the way for defining the variations and transmission mechanism of the bird flu virus, local newspaper Youth reported Wednesday. Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute and the Regional Veterinary Centre in the southern city claimed Tuesday they have entirely decoded the gene of the virus.

Ngo Bao Long, of the Veterinary Centre, said they found not only the virus strain H5, but also two other strains of H3 and H4 in two samples from poultry.

Theoretically, when a fowl is infected with H5, H3 and H4 at the same time, the viruses can swap their genes to create a new virus strain, which can be more dangerous, he said.

Vietnam, in early 2006, is likely to churn out 20-50 million dozes of H5N1 vaccines to be used for poultry next year, said the biotechnology institute's director Le Tran Binh, adding his institute has completed procedures to produce the vaccines.

Meanwhile, the country's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology is completing final procedures to produce H5N1 vaccines to be used for people. The Hanoi-based institute that has been involved in research into the vaccines since 2004, has proposed the health ministry use them on trial basis in early 2006.

Since December 2004, Vietnam has detected 65 human cases of bird flu infections, including 22 fatalities, according to the health ministry.

--Xinhua

source: (IANS)