Vietnamese man did not die from bird flu

HANOI, Wednesday (Reuters) A Vietnamese teacher who died last week had a lung infection and not, as suspected, the H5N1 bird flu virus, state media reported on Wednesday.

Tests at the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City showed the 36-year-old man from the southern province of Soc Trang did not have the virus, Health Ministry official Nguyen Van Binh was quoted as saying.

Doctors said cold weather had caused more lung infections and regular flu cases, but that treatment procedures required them to report and test all flu patients for the avian influenza virus.

The H5N1 virus which has killed 73 people in Asia, including 42 Vietnamese persists in eight of the country's 64 provinces, the Animal Health Department said in a report.

Department director Bui Quang Anh said the spread of the disease had slowed in recent weeks but there were more cases to come.

"If we are not taking comprehensive measures, the risk of more bird flu outbreaks will be very high, especially when it is nearing Tet festival," Anh told the police-run An Ninh Thu Do newspaper, referring to the Lunar New Year festival.

Chicken is traditionally offered to ancestors at Tet, which falls in late January this year.

Scientists fear the H5N1 strain could mutate from a disease that largely affects birds to one that can pass easily between people, leading to a human pandemic.