Persisting Bird Flu Poses Huge Challenge for Vietnam's Bureaucracy

[CoffeeCat]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1508&ncid=1508&e=1&u=/afp/20050403/hl_afp/healthfluvietnam

HANOI (AFP) - A persisting bird flu epidemic in Vietnam poses a scientific challenge but also tests the country's bureaucracy, which has so far proven incapable of dealing with the seriousness of the disease, analysts say.

Apart from the need for research on vaccines and the surveillance mechanism necessary to detect possible mutations of the virus that has killed dozens of people across in the country in the past year, a rapid response to the first clinical signs of the disease is of the essence, they stress.

But although Vietnam's government has taken the matter seriously, it has been unprepared in practical terms. In the vast country of 82 million people, many residents are beyond the authorities' easy reach.

Despite public warnings and regular media coverage, a large part of the rural population remains under-informed. Many people eat infected poultry and do not know how to cope with an epidemic.