HANOI, June 3 (Reuters) - Bird flu has been spreading among ducklings in Vietnam's northern region this week, the government said on Sunday, as the country also copes with its first confirmed human cases since November 2005. Ten ducklings died and 80 others fell sick in a farm in Thai Binh province on Thursday, and tests found they had the H5N1 virus, the Animal Health Department said in a report. On Saturday the country had reported its second human case of the virus in less tham a month, after a year and a half with no new human cases. Both victims were in hospital in stable condition, officials said. A total of 42 Vietnamese have died since the virus re-surfaced in Asia in late 2003. The infection in ducklings in Thai Binh means the virus has spread to poultry in 14 provinces plus the Mekong delta city of Can Tho since early May. Regarding recent human cases, doctors reported on Saturday to a government meeting on bird flu prevention on two men, from the northern provinces of Vinh Phuc and Thai Nguyen. The first patient, from Vinh Phuc, helped slaughter chickens at a friend's wedding early last month before he developed high fever. The second, a worker in a poultry slaughterhouse outside Hanoi, became sick on May 26. Both were taken to a hospital in Hanoi where their conditions have stabilised. The Animal Health Department said 127.3 million poultry have been vaccinated against bird flu so far this year and 41 out of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities have completed the first phase of a vaccination campaign. More than 20 provinces have started the second phase of the campaign, targeting ducks, officials said. The fowl spread the H5N1 virus in their droppings as they roam from one rice field to another. The virus has infected more than 300 people in 12 countries, 187 of whom have died, according to World Health Organisation figures. These did not include the death on Tuesday of a 15-year-old Indonesian girl. Most human cases have involved people who have had contact with infected fowl. Experts fear if an easy means of transmission from human to human develops, there could be a pandemic affecting millions.
