Clova realpolitik

Report: Bird flu on migration path

CNN.com - Report: Bird flu on migration path - Nov 6, 2005

China can't rule out bird flu in death of human

Sunday, November 6, 2005; Posted: 4:15 a.m. EST (09:15 GMT)
BEIJING, China (AP) -- A bird flu outbreak in northern China that sparked the culling of about 370,000 birds lies along a migration route that spans from East Asia to Australia, a media report said Sunday, as officials continued killing thousands of birds east of Beijing.

China, meanwhile, said Sunday it can't rule out bird flu in the death of a 12-year-old girl last month and has called on the World Health Organization to help with diagnosis.

Three people living in central China's Hunan province came down with pneumonia last month following an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu among local poultry, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Of those, a 12-year-old girl died. Her nine-year-old brother and a 36-year-old school teacher recovered from the illness. Chinese officials initially said that the girl and her brother had tested negative for the virus.

But on Sunday, Xinhua reported that experts "cannot rule out the possibility of human transmission of H5N1 bird flu. The specific cause needs further laboratory tests."

Xinhua also said that China has asked the World Health Organization for help in testing the blood and throat swabs from the three victims.

As Indonesia confirmed its fifth fatality from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and jitters mounted across Asia, Japan was reportedly considering a plan to nearly double its annual contribution to the World Health Organization to help combat the deadly virus.

Around 1,700 Chinese officials and armed police were expected to complete by Sunday the culling of poultry in Liaoning province's Badaohao village, close to the border with North Korea, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Badaohao outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain -- the fourth in China in three weeks -- killed 8,940 chickens and prompted authorities to destroy 369,900 other birds, the government has said.

More than 20 magpies and other migratory birds were spotted in the area, Xinhua said without giving further details.

Chinese authorities have said they are concerned that wild birds might spread the virus, particularly following an outbreak last spring that killed more than 6,000 migratory geese and gulls at northwestern China's Qinghai Lake. (Global bird migration paths)

The State Forestry Bureau said last month it was activating a reporting network to detect outbreaks among wild birds.

Meanwhile in Beijing, new regulations went into effect Sunday that allow detention for up to 15 days and fines of up to 200 yuan (US$25; euro21) for anyone who fails to immunize their birds, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

The rules, announced jointly by the Beijing Agricultural Bureau and the Beijing Public Security Bureau, are aimed at ensuring a 100 percent bird vaccination rate in the capital, the newspaper said.

No human cases have been reported in China, but authorities warn they are inevitable if the government cannot stop repeated outbreaks in poultry.

Meanwhile, Japan was mulling a plan to give 300 million yen (US$2.6 million; euro2.1 million) to the WHO to help combat bird flu and other infectious outbreaks in developing countries, the national newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday, citing unnamed government sources.

Tokyo, which gave around 160 million yen (US$1.36 million; euro1.1 million) to the global health agency for 2005, said the money would be used to improve surveillance of infection routes of bird flu and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, the report said.

The government was also planning to invite influenza experts from Vietnam, Indonesia and other countries early next year for training at the National Institute of Infectious Disease in Tokyo, Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

Officials at the Health and Agricultural Ministries were not available for comment Sunday.

The response comes a day after Indonesian officials confirmed that a 19-year-old woman died of bird flu, bringing the number of people killed by the disease in Indonesia to five.

The woman, from the town of Tangerang on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, was believed to have contracted the virus from infected dead chickens in her neighborhood, Ministry of Health official Hariadi Wibisono said Saturday.

An 8-year-old boy from her family was hospitalized with the virus, but it was not immediately clear how the young boy contracted the disease.

Since late 2003, the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has ravaged poultry stocks and killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia.

Most of the human deaths have been linked to close contact with infected birds. But experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among humans, and possibly trigger a worldwide pandemic.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

November 6, 2005 at 10:41 AM in Flu pandemic watch | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home