Vietnam says bird flu victims drank duck blood

Deputy Health Minister Tran Chi Liem was quoted in the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper as saying the trio had dined on duck before one of them died of the H5N1 bird flu strain, a fact backed up by the World Health Organization.

The triple outbreak in one family had sparked fears in Vietnam that a version of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had managed to jump from person to person.

One of the brothers died of bird flu on Jan. 9. His 42-year-old younger sibling, who had been looking after him, went down with the virus shortly after.

The brother is now recovering, but a third brother, aged 36, has now contracted the disease.

Since the end of 2003, outbreaks of bird flu have killed more than 40 people, nearly 30 in Vietnam alone.

It has also led to the death or culling of millions of birds across Asia.

Meanwhile, the bird flu virus has been detected in a third province in Thailand.

It is the third outbreak this month of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus and has been detected in locally bred chickens in the western province of Nakhon Pathom.

The Thai Livestock Department says more than 700 chickens in the district of Dontoom have died of bird flu and another 464 have been culled to prevent the disease from spreading.

Thailand has been on high alert for bird flu since two other outbreaks of the virus were detected earlier in the month in Rayong and Phitsanulok provinces.

Twelve people have died in Thailand from the virus that has swept Asia since December 2003.