The World Health Organization (WHO) has just donated 1,500 tablets of Tamiflu to Vietnam for flu type A treatment.

The Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, which is treating three flu type A patients, has received the medicines, local newspaper Youth reported Monday.

The Health Ministry will propose the government grant an additional 60 billion Vietnamese dong (US$3.8 million) to purchase more medicines, respirators and antiseptics.   

This week, the Health Department of Ho Chi Minh City will import 2,000 tablets of Tamiflu. The medicine, produced by Swiss firm Hoffmann La Roche, has selling prices of between over two and three dollars per tablet.

By Sunday, Vietnam had over 70 flu type A infections and suspects, of whom 21 died, the paper said. WHO has confirmed 10 cases of H5N1 infections, including eight fatalities.

The country's Central Veterinarian Department said by Sunday bird flu appeared in 797 communes in 187 districts in 47 cities and provinces nationwide. The disease keeps on spreading in the Mekong Delta, the home to 52.6 million fowls. 

(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2004)