Hanoi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A 32-year-old man died after two weeks in Hanoi’s National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases. He is the second H5N1 virus fatality in Vietnam since the start of the year.

The infection started after the man slaughtered and ate ducks his family raised in Ninh Binh, about 100 kilometres south of Hanoi, this according to hospital chief Nguyen Van Thai.

Vietnam ranks second in Asia after Indonesia for the highest number of bird flu deaths. The country now has a total 54 bird flu fatalities since the disease broke out in Asia in 2003.

In the northern province of Dien Bien, bird flu has broken out in two communes, Vietnam's Department of Animal Health, which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, reported yesterday.

So far this year, the avian flu has become recorded in 11 provinces, including four provinces in Mekong Delta (Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Hau Giang and Bac Lieu), four northern provinces (Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Ninh Binh and Dien Bien), two central provinces (Nghe An and Quang Tri) and one southern (Khanh Hoa).

At the same time the government has had to cull more than 50,000 birds (chicken and geese) to prevent the spread of the disease.