HANOI, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- An old man from Vietnam's southern Kien Giang province died on March 13 after showing bird flu symptoms, according to local newspaper Youth on Tuesday.

    The 69-year-old man named To So Trung from Chau Thanh district was admitted to the Kien Giang Hospital on March 5 with symptoms of breathing difficulty. Specimens from the patient are being tested for bird flu virus strain H5N1.

    The patient had stomachache and difficulties in breathing aftereating duck. He needed respiratory assistance after hospitalization.

    Vietnam's Health Ministry has recently confirmed that the country has detected 24 human cases of H5N1 infections since mid-December 2004, of whom 13 have died. Up to eight infection cases, including healthcare workers and ordinary people in the same families, have been discovered in northern Thai Binh province alone.

    The ministry has also confirmed that bird flu virus strains have yet to combine with one another to form a new one, which can create big outbreaks among humans. The World Health Organization has recently expressed its worry about the pandemic risk.     

    "Rapid field investigation of each new case is essential to ensure timely detection of clusters of cases occurring in family members or healthcare workers. Such cases can provide the first signal that the virus is altering its behavior in human populations and thus alert authorities to the need to intervene quickly," the organization said in a statement posted on its website on March 11.

    Bird flu has killed and led to the forced culling of more than 1.5 million fowls in 35 cities and provinces in Vietnam since January. The Vietnamese government claimed that the outbreak is subsiding as 23 out of the 35 localities have detected no new birdflu-affected spots for at least three weeks so far. Enditem