HANOI, June 26 (Xinhua) -- A 40-year-old man from Vietnam's southern Bac Lieu province has been hospitalized after showing bird flu symptoms, the local newspaper Young People reported Tuesday.

    The man, under treatment at the Tropical Disease Hospital in southern Ho Chi Minh City, has suffered from severe respiratory problems over the past few days after eating a dead duck. He works for wages for a local man named Tran Van Thong who is raising 350 ducklings, some of them having died recently.

    The provincial Veterinary Bureau said three flocks of ducks in Bac Lieu's Hong Dan district died in the last few days after exhibiting bird flu symptoms. They were raised in the neighbor province of Soc Trang and were moving to Bac Lieu.

    Specimens from the man and the dead ducks are being tested for bird flu virus strain H5N1.

    Since late 2005, Vietnam has confirmed five human cases of birdflu infections, of whom two have died, two from the northern provinces of Vinh Phuc and Thanh Hoa have been discharged from hospital, and one from northern Thai Nguyen province is still been under treatment at the Tropical Disease Hospital in the capital of Hanoi.

    All of the bird flu patients have either had direct contact with or eaten dead fowls, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan said recently, noting that H5N1 has yet to mutate, and medicine Tami flu is still effective in treating bird flu patients.

    Since early May, bird flu outbreaks among fowls have been reported in 18 cities and provinces across Vietnam, the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said, noting that four of the affected localities have detected no new outbreaks for at least three weeks, meeting the criteria for announcing an end to the disease in their territories.