Special report: Global fight against bird flu

     HANOI, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- A mobile bird flu laboratory with an investment of 2 million U.S. dollars has become operational in Vietnam, local newspaper Pioneer reported Wednesday.

    The bio-safety lab inaugurated on Tuesday is able to rapidly conduct bird flu testing when the disease breaks out among human at large scale, the newspaper quoted Nguyen Tran Hien, director of Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, as saying.

    The lab will give results of testing specimens from suspected bird flu patients in only one or two weeks, he said, noting that Vietnam now often has to send specimens abroad for testing and wait for outcomes in two months.

    In addition, it is easy to move the lab to localities with outbreaks among humans, helping reducing the risk of virus spreading on the way of transporting specimens and its jumping to health staff, Hien said.

    To date, Vietnam has detected 93 human bird flu cases, including 42 fatalities, in 32 localities, the Vietnamese Health Ministry said on Jan. 9, noting that it has seen no new human cases of infections since mid-November 2005.

    Bird flu has, since early December 2006, stricken 41 communes in 17 districts in the four southern provinces of Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Hau Giang and Kien Giang, either killing or leading to the forced culling of more than 42,000 poultry, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

    Bird flu outbreaks in Vietnam, starting in December 2003, have killed and led to the forced culling of dozens of millions of fowls in the country.