The World Health Organization (WHO) warned today of critical public health risks in Vietnam during Lunar New Year celebrations this month after 13 recent deaths in the country from bird flu.
Vietnam has asked for help from the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to develop a long-term strategy to contain the H5N1 virus, which has spread to poultry in half of its 64 provinces and possibly into Cambodia.
"We are in a critical situation in public health terms, at least that the Tet Lunar Year is coming up," said Mr Peter Cordingley, a spokesman at the WHO's Asia-Pacific headquarters in Manila.
"People are going to be on the move and there's going to be a lot of chickens that will be moved around, because chickens are on the dining table during these festivals. We are afraid that this might be a watershed moment."
Chicken is a traditional holiday dish and Mr Cordingley said the WHO was seeing many cases of people in Vietnam and other countries plucking dead or dying chickens.
The head of the Animal Health Department at Vietnam's agriculture ministry said the government had asked for equipment, help in surveillance and other forms of expertise to fight its third outbreak since H5N1 hit Asia in late 2003.