|
 HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - The mock scenario was deadly serious: a Vietnamese laboratory had confirmed the bird flu virus had mutated and was spreading from person to person. Wailing ambulances carried a team of doctors to the affected Hanoi neighborhood. Clad from head to toe in green biohazard suits, boots, goggles and masks, they were ready to battle the start of a pandemic.
The exercise was part of a large-scale bird flu drill in Hanoi Sunday to test the country's pandemic preparedness. Some 900 people — from the military and police to health and agricultural officials — ran through a scenario where throngs of people were falling ill and dying.
Bird flu has already killed at least 68 people in Asia since it emerged in 2003 — nearly two-thirds of them in Vietnam, according to the World Health Organization.
|