Vietnamese Family May Have Bird Flu

From Gulfnews:

"Hanoi: Four members of a Vietnamese family have been hospitalized with symptoms of bird flu after eating sick chickens in the country's south, where the disease re-emerged in poultry earlier this month.

If confirmed, they would be the first reported human infections from the H5N1 bird flu virus in Vietnam since late 2005.

The mother and her three children, aged between 3 and 13, all suffered from high fever, coughing and lung infection. They are being treated at Nam Can Hospital in the southern province of Ca Mau.

"Their samples have been sent for bird flu tests in Ho Chi Minh City and results should be available soon," an official at the Ca Mau Provincial Animal Health Department said yesterday.

Bird flu has killed 42 of the 93 people infected in Vietnam."

----------------------------------

Either this family is really really stupid, or really really poor. I'm thinking its the latter. If I was one meal away from starving to death I'd risk eating sick chicken. A 50% chance of dying from bird flu is still better odds than the 100% chance of dying of hunger.