One of the 41 victims of bird flu in Vietnam's latest outbreak has tested positive for HIV, doctors said Thursday. The 22-year-old woman from the coastal city of Halong tested positive for HIV and H5N1 at the same time at the beginning of April, said a doctor from the infectious diseases ward of the general hospital in Quang Ninh. "She is stable but still very weak and requires extra oxygen supplies for respiration," said the doctor who asked not to be named. Since the latest outbreak of bird flu emerged in Vietnam in December 2004, at least 41 people have been infected, of whom 16 have died, according to ministry of health statistics. Animal health officials said Wednesday that test results from waterfowl have shown that a worryingly high amount of ducks and geese in Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta have been carrying the virus without showing any symptoms. Experts have warned that the waterfowl population is a reservoir for the disease, making eradication much more difficult. The virus has not yet shown any evidence that it has mutated into a form that can be easily spread between humans. --SP 1257 Local Time 0957 GMT
