Via Saigon Giai Phong, a December 4 report: Avian flu patient dies of pneumonia in HCMC.
A 42-year-old man said to be infected with the avian flu virus died of pneumonia after being treated for a few days at the Tropical Diseases Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.
Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, the hospital’s director, said that the patient was suspected of having A/H5N1 flu virus. He hailed from the Mekong delta province of Kien Giang and was transferred to the above hospital from the General Hospital in the southern province of Binh Duong last week with high fever, cough, sore throat and respiratory problems.
Scan results showed that the man had an enlarged heart, lung infection and other clinical symptoms that made doctors suspect him of having been infected by the dreaded avian flu virus. The hospital and the Pasteur Institute in HCMC conducted tests which had proved negative.
After five days of intensive treatment, the man died of pneumonia and respiratory failure.
The man was a construction worker in Binh Duong Province. Before being hospitalized, he had gone to his hometown in Kien Giang Province and had eaten a dead duck that had been homebred by his family.
So the patient tested negative for H5N1 but his symptoms encouraged that diagnosis. I don't find anything about this case in Thanh Nien Daily, but perhaps other Vietnamese media will have more on the story.
Update: The only other English-language report I can find is this item in Viet Nam News, dated December 5, whch emphasizes tests on poultry in the man's neighbourhood.
