Woman testing positive for H5N1 is country's 11th case
Feb. 8, 2006. 11:02 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — A 26-year-old Chinese woman has contracted bird flu, the government said today, becoming at least the 11th person to be infected with the disease in China.
Until the latest case was reported in coastal Fujian province, there had been 10 reported human cases of bird flu on the mainland. Only three survived.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the Chinese Health Ministry confirmed that the woman, surnamed Liu from the Fujian's Zhangpu county, tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the virus. The report did not give her full name.
It said there has been no outbreak so far of avian flu among birds detected in the area where Liu lives. People with close contact to her before she fell ill have been put under medical observation, Xinhua said.
Earlier Wednesday, China reported its 29th outbreak of the disease in birds since Oct. 19.
Up to 15,000 fowl in Yijing, a town in China's northern Shanxi province, were found dead Feb. 2 -3, Xinhua said. It did not specify the type of birds.
They tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of the disease, Xinhua said.
So far, more than 187,000 birds have been culled in the area, it said.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong on Wednesday, government health officials said a dead egret found in a suburb of Hong Kong has tested positive for H5N1.
Officials have been trying to prevent epidemics in birds because it increases the chances of the disease being passed to humans.
The Chinese government says it has destroyed 22.5 million birds over the past year in order to contain repeated bird flu outbreaks in poultry in areas throughout the country.
China's human deaths were reported in Sichuan province and the Guangxi region in the south and in the provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui in the east and Fujian.
While most of the human infections have been linked to direct contact with sick poultry, experts have warned that the virus could mutate into a form that could be easily transmitted between people, possibly sparking a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Render&c=Article&cid=1139397069040&call_pageid=968332188492
Sunday February 26, 12:56 AM
China[/B] sees threat of "massive" bird flu outbreak
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China warned of the threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country as it reported two new human cases of the virus, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.
Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin said
Du said his ministry would stick to consistent epidemic monitoring, diagnosing and reporting, and strengthen poultry vaccinating and virus testing.
"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Du said, repeating a similar warning issued earlier this week when he said a big outbreak could occur in the spring.
Chinese farmers raised about 15 billion poultry in 2005, or 21 percent of the world's total, Du said.
Earlier on Saturday, Xinhua reported that two new human cases of bird flu had been diagnosed in the east of the country.
A Chinese girl in eastern
The woman farmer, who was diagnosed on Feb. 11 with symptoms of fever and pneumonia, had come into contact with sick and dead poultry, Xinhua said.
The girl, a nine-year-old from
The latest cases brought the total number of human cases of bird flu in
Bird flu is highly contagious among poultry and can spread through an entire flock in hours. It remains difficult for humans to catch but has killed more than 90 people worldwide since late 2003.
So far most human victims of the virus have had direct or indirect contact with infected birds, but there are fears the virus will mutate into a strain easily passed among people, causing a pandemic in which millions could die.
Taiwan News.
2006-02-24 / central news agency /
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that China has been concealing avian flu cases in the country, making it a "hole" in the global health protection net.In the president's latest e-letter posted on his Web site, Chen noted that from the start of 2003 to mid-February of this year, the World Health Organization confirmed a total of 169 cases of H5N1 infection in humans in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iraq, Thailand, Cambodia and Turkey, with 91 of the cases resulting in death.
Now, avian flu is spreading westward to Western Europe, Chen added.
According to Chen, the Chinese government confirmed a case of H5N1 infection in a woman in Fujian Province 28 days after the woman developed bird flu symptoms, much more than the 15 days required by the WHO to confirm a bird flu case.
"It is obvious that China has not learned a lesson from the SARS outbreak in 2003," Chen said.
China still covers up information about any pandemic in order to avoid "losing face, " Chen claimed, adding that Beijing only faces reality when the matter grows beyond its control.
The president said this attitude poses a serious threat to the health of the people in China, Taiwan and the rest of the world.
In addition to concealing information, China has spared no effort trying to obstruct Taiwan's efforts to join the WHO, thus creating another "hole" in the global health protection net, the president said.
Noting that disease knows no borders, Chen stressed that public health and disease prevention are topics that people around the world should address jointly in this era of globalization and liberalization.
However, for political reasons, the Chinese government has sacrificed the health of its people and isolated Taiwan in the global disease prevention system, Chen said, adding that this "is the international community's biggest regret."
During the last 400 years, there have been 12 major flu pandemics, with nine of these originating in China, while in the 20th century, there were three major flu pandemics, all of which began in China, the president said.
Noting that people should not be careless about bird flu cases in China, Chen said that the help of the Taiwan people is needed in the world's disease prevention efforts. He also noted that Taiwan's capabilities in disease prevention have been demonstrated by the fact that the island has been able to remain avian flu-free to date
http://www.etaiwannews.com/showPage.php?setupFile=showcontent.xml&menu_item_id=MI-1123666634&did=d_1140749287_6615_72C2D5F9634D3CDE11FF9EF0A17F C9571E62CC87_58&area=taiwan&area_code=00000
Pravda Mon, 27 Feb 2006 11:29 PM PST
No outbreaks of the potentially deadly bird flu virus have so far been found among migratory birds in China this spring, a top government wildlife official was quoted Tuesday as saying.
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/28-02-2006/76579-0
Right!
BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed on Saturday one more bird flu outbreak in poultry in East China's Anhui Province.
The ministry said 13 chickens were found dead in Jitai Village of Yingshang Township when an expert team of the ministry went there for the inspection of bird flu prevention and control.
After preliminary analysis, the state avian flu lab confirmed on Feb. 25 that samples from four of the dead chickens tested positive for the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic bird flu, said the ministry. Since the outbreak was reported, the local vets authorities have culled more than 200 poultry around the affected areas. The epidemic is now under control and no further spread is reported, said the ministry. Enditem
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060225/3/2gg7l.html
(You must have Chinese figures installed on your computer to read the original.)
Boxun Reports are published by journalists working under cover and at great risk in China. They are usually not verifiable by a second or third independent source, except over time as details reveal themselves. This group reported on the SARS outbreak in China 2-3 months before China admitted having a problem in 2003. It became clear in that case that their reporting was valid.
This Boxun Avian Influenza Report was translated by Peterpan.
Following release of this report, the Chinese government announced the first 3 deaths from bird flu in their country. One person knowledgeable of the SARS outbreak said that the actual numbers of deaths in China from SARS at any one time was 100 times what China reported to the West. I don't know if that's true, but at the time this report came out, China admitted to no deaths, in spite of the fact that North Vietnam had deaths and reported H5N1 having acquired genetic material that makes it more transmissible in humans. Following the release of the Boxun Report, China began reporting H5N1 infection and human deaths.
Near the end of 2005, a world renowned virologist from Hong Kong took China to task for not releasing information and misrepresenting what was going on there. Soon after he withdrew his comment. Following that, a world renowned Japanese virologist made a statement during a retirement party for a colleague. He spoke of human-to-human transmissions and deaths he'd been told of in China on a visit with WHO. He later recanted. One wonders if these scientists were speaking the truth and changed their stories when pressure was brought to bear. Perhaps future findings will reveal the tryuh.
Here's the translation: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHINA:
Official from Ministry of Health Reveals 2005 Human Case Figures for Avian Influenza Outbreak in China
Since 2004, China has been continually plagued by Avian Influenza outbreaks of varying degrees and unverified reports of infection. In 2005, some of these outbreaks attracted the attention of the outside world. However, these outbreaks are not as straightforward as what is perceived by the world at large. Due to the deployment of the PLA to the epidemic zones, the Chinese Ministry of Health has been able to gain some form of control and organisation over the dissemination of information to the rest of the world. And although they have ostensibly allowed the entry of external health experts into the epidemic zones to conduct their investigations, they will still be bound by arrangements and rules dictated by the Chinese and hence their perception of the situation there would not accurately reflect the actual events that had occurred.
Currently, the Avian Influenza problem in China is very grave. Over the course of the outbreaks, Chinese officials have been briefed on the procedures to follow in order to control the outbreak the the spread of information. The Chinese Central Military Committee has directed that all suspect and confirmed cases of Avian Influenza infections be sent to specialized hospitals. Notifications must be sent to a higher centralized authority. They have also strictly prohibited any Chinese health officials to privately speak to the foreign media. If it is discovered that they have done so, they will be sacked immediately. There must be no mention made of the H5N1 virus in the cause of death of those who have succumbed to the virus. Patients who seek treatment for respiratory problems in non-designated hospitals will not be allowed to claim insurance or medical expenses.
(The statistical model used appears to be almost the same as that used during the previous Shenzhen Ebola outbreak)
The Original Boxun Table with 24 Provinces, ^^ indicates Human to Human transmission:
60
Translated headings
Province......Number....Number.....Number.......Nu mber....Transmission
.................of..........Currently....Currentl y.....Missing.....Bird to Human/
.................Dead......Infected.....Quarantine d...............Human to Human
Qinghai..........143.......... 131..........961..........13..........B/H, H/H
Xinjiang...........18............35..........340.. ..........6..........H/H,H/H
Inner Mongolia..28.............9..........149........... ..2..........B/H, H/H
Xichang............7............15..........177... ..........9..........B/H, H/H
Sichuan..........................12...........39.. .......................B/H
Hunan...............8.............4...........17.. .......................B/H, H/H
Hubei..............25..........297.......1,524.... .........4..........B/H, H/H
Guangdong........6............47...........66..... ........6..........B/H
Fujian...............2...........13.............9. ............1...........B/H
Jiangxi..............1...........................7 ..........................B/H
Zhejiang........................................13 ........................
Jiangsu..........................................2 1........................
Hunan...........................................57 ........................
Hebei............................................2 1........................
Liaoning..........69...........237........2,076... .........2..........B/H, H/H
Jilin...............................19............ 30.........................B/H
Heilongjiang....................23..............9. ........................B/H
Hainan............................................ 6..........................
Yunnan............................3............... ..........................B/H
Gansu...............1............................7 ..........................B/H
Ningxia............................3.............. ...........................B/H
Shaanxi.............2............................. ..........................B/H
Shandong.......................................... .............4..........
Anhui..............................6.............2 1.........................B/H
Totals............310.........859.........5,504... .........37..........
Although accurate till 12th November, these case figures are constantly changing. Also, since the cases figures have been collated by the Central State Council, they would have reduced it somewhat, and hence, the actual figures may be higher.
Currently, the situation in China is severe. Human to human transmission has occurred and affected personnel have been quarantined for long periods. Death figures are noticeably higher in B-H transmission regions. The situation has been gradually brought under control although it still remains critical.
These figures are thought to be cumulative totals to 12 November 2005, although the use of the present tense would suggest that the situation is on-going. B-H refers to transmission from bird to human, H-H refers to human to human transmission. The number quarantined is believed to refer to current number of people in quarantine. The number disappeared is thought to mean the number of people who have broken the quarantine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
35 suspected of bird flu in China
From correspondents in Beijing
February 10, 2006
HEALTH authorities in northern China have placed 35 people under observation after 15,000 fowl died of bird flu on the farm where they were working, state media said today.
The Xinhua news agency, citing government sources in Shanxi province, said the 35 workers had been confined to their homes in Yangquan city and were receiving twice-daily medical check-ups.
Authorities have confirmed that the H5N1 strain of bird flu killed 15,000 head of poultry on their farm and said 187,745 more had been culled in the affected area to prevent the disease spreading.
Yesterday, the health ministry announced China's 11th human case of bird flu. The 26-year-old woman, surnamed Lin, from the eastern province of Fujian, tested positive for H5N1 after being hospitalised with fever and pneumonia on January 10, but was in a stable condition, it said.
Bird flu has killed seven people in China.
The Fujian Daily reported today that Ms Lin was out of quarantine and expected to leave hospital soon.
Like most of the other human cases in China, no outbreak among animals was detected in Zhangpu county where Ms Lin lived, emphasising the inability of authorities to effectively monitor the disease.
The Fujian provincial agricultural department has collected 319 poultry samples within a three-kilometre radius of Ms Lin's home, but all have tested negative, the Fujian Daily said.
Julie Hall, a Beijing-based World Health Organisation (WHO) expert, said that although the WHO was still awaiting information about what caused the latest human infection, the case appeared to have followed a familiar pattern.
"What we've seen in quite a number of other cases in China is that the Ministry of Agriculture has not been able to identify viruses in the animals in that area," Ms Hall said.
"But there certainly have been reports from the health authorities and patients themselves that animals in their areas have been dying and have been sick for some weeks prior to their onset of their illness."
Ms Hall said she was not surprised by the latest case.
"We believe the virus is endemic in parts of China and certainly endemic in the wild birds. Many poultry flocks in China remain vulnerable to infections."
China has reported 34 H5N1 outbreaks among poultry since the beginning of last year, with most appearing since October.
"We would anticipate that there would be a continued number of these types of cases, unfortunately, throughout the winter," Ms Hall said.
The WHO says of the 165 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans detected since 2003, 88 people have died. Most of the victims have been in Asia, although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.
The World Organisation for Animal Health confirmed yesterday H5N1 had been detected for the first time in Africa, wiping out 40,000 battery hens on a farm in northern Nigeria
2 H5N1 Patients Reported Seriously Ill in Zhejiang & Anhui (http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/china/2006/02/200602260038.shtml)
(According to Ming Bao News Service) The Ministry of Health has reported that 2 cases of H5N1 illness have been diagnosed in Zhejiang and Anhui. They are a 9 / F schoolgirl and a 26 / F farmer respectively.
The 9 / F was a native of Anji Town in Zhejiang Province, she became symptomatic with a fever and pneumonia on 10th Feb.
Initial investigations showed that she had visited a relative in GuangDe Town, Zhejiang Province, twice before her illness. It has also been established that during that period of time, dead chickens had been reported at her said relative's house. Further investigations are underway to determine if this is her (9 / F's) source of infection. Her condition is currently critical and she is undergoing emergency treatment.
The 26 / F was a native of Ying Shang District, Anhui. She became symptomatic with a fever and pneumonia on 11th Feb.
Initial investigations showed that prior to her illness she had contact with dead birds. Tests run by the Ministry of Agriculture have found the H5N1 strain in samples from these dead birds. Her condition is critical and is undergoing emergency treatment.
The Ministry of Health has diagnosed both cases to be human infections of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza virus.
The Ministry of Health has notified the WHO, Hongkong, Macau and other neighbouring countries of the 2 cases.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060225/3/2gg7l.html
Sunday February 26, 12:56 AM
China[/B] sees threat of "massive" bird flu outbreak
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China warned of the threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country as it reported two new human cases of the virus, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.
Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin said
Du said his ministry would stick to consistent epidemic monitoring, diagnosing and reporting, and strengthen poultry vaccinating and virus testing.
"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Du said, repeating a similar warning issued earlier this week when he said a big outbreak could occur in the spring.
Chinese farmers raised about 15 billion poultry in 2005, or 21 percent of the world's total, Du said.
Earlier on Saturday, Xinhua reported that two new human cases of bird flu had been diagnosed in the east of the country.
A Chinese girl in eastern
The woman farmer, who was diagnosed on Feb. 11 with symptoms of fever and pneumonia, had come into contact with sick and dead poultry, Xinhua said.
The girl, a nine-year-old from
The latest cases brought the total number of human cases of bird flu in
Bird flu is highly contagious among poultry and can spread through an entire flock in hours. It remains difficult for humans to catch but has killed more than 90 people worldwide since late 2003.
So far most human victims of the virus have had direct or indirect contact with infected birds, but there are fears the virus will mutate into a strain easily passed among people, causing a pandemic in which millions could die.
Until the western world starts holding them accountable, where it hurts ($$$), they will continue disreagarding what the rest of the civilized world finds acceptable behavior. SARS was a good example of that. I only hope the 2008 Olympics are put on hold because of what I call the Chinese flu!
"An urgent task at present is to carry out nationwide publicity as quickly as possible," said Zhong, a member of China's top advisory body, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Zhong, who is in Beijing to attend the annual session of the CPPCC National Committee, said bird flu is affecting human beings.
A patient in Guangzhou who died of bird flu did not have direct contacts with dead poultry. "It's possible that live poultry may also carry bird flu virus," said Zhong.
It's possible that other animals, including cat and pig, may also be infected with bird flu, he said.
Zhong praised government work in preventing and controlling human infection of highly pathogenic bird flu, but he noted that publicity is not enough, especially in some rural areas.
"Some people there are not alert for bird flu. They don't report serious pneumonia cases to relevant departments when they hear of them," said Zhong.
On the other hand, people should not be over-worried about the spread of bird flu, Zhong said. "The majority of people are not sensitive to the current strain of bird flu."
He said China has done a fairly good job in monitoring wild poultry. In addition, some cities have began monitoring serious cases of pneumonia. The information system is being improved and research and development of vaccines have made progress.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/07/content_4268408.htm
China has warned of possible widespread outbreaks of avian influenza during the coming spring bird migratory season, as the health ministry announced two more human cases of the virus.
"At present we cannot rule out the possibility of widespread outbreaks of the bird flu in China," the Xinhua news agency on Sunday quoted Agricultural Minister Du Qinglin as saying at a parliamentary meeting.
"We must remain on a high-level alert in all areas and continue to earnestly step up prevention and control work."
Du's remarks on Saturday came as the health ministry reported that a nine-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman in eastern China had contracted bird flu and were both in critical condition.
The two cases brought the number of people stricken by the bird flu in China to 14, with eight of them dying, the ministry said.
The girl, surnamed You and from Zhejiang province, showed signs of fever and pneumonia on February 10, while the woman, surnamed Wang and from Anhui province, showed similar symptoms a day later, the ministry said on its website.
Both have been hospitalised.
The pair had close contact with sick or dead chickens before their illness, while the Anhui case occurred in a county where an outbreak amongst poultry was reported.
People who had close contact with them have been put under medical observation by local health authorities, the report said, adding that so far they had shown no abnormal symptoms.
The World Health Organization (http://www.physorg.com/news11208.html#) (WHO) also urged greater bird flu surveillance and monitoring in China out of fears that human populations will become more endangered if wild birds pass the virus onto poultry farms during the spring migratory season.
"During the spring, migratory birds are likely to come back to China, so there is more concern over outbreaks here," Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, WHO's Beijing-based spokeswoman, told AFP.
Fears that migratory birds could infect farm-raised birds further underscored the need to step up monitoring for outbreaks among poultry and ensure the safe movement and transportation of the farmed birds, she said.
"There is an equal level of concern on the movement and transport of poultry... since humans are in closer contact with poultry, humans will be at higher risk (among farm-raised birds)," Bhatiasevi said.
In his report to parliament, Minister Du said several of the 32 outbreaks of bird flu recorded in China in 2005 were directly linked to migratory birds.
"The outbreaks have been closely related to migratory bird routes. Of the 32 outbreaks, seven were directly related to migratory bird routes," Du said.
Last year China recorded 163,000 poultry infected with the H5N1 strain, of which 154,600 birds died, Du said. The nation culled some 225.7 million birds last year in the 13 provinces where bird flu appeared, he added.
"We must strictly implement the monitoring and reporting system to discover new outbreaks in a timely way, we must step up immunization (http://www.physorg.com/news11208.html#) work and maintain the quality of medicines," Du said.
The virus (http://www.physorg.com/news11208.html#) has killed more than 90 people worldwide with most fatalities coming in Asia since 2003. On Saturday Indonesia confirmed its 20th victim.
© 2006 AFP
http://www.physorg.com/news11208.html
By Zhao Huanxin and Cecilia Lo (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-02-09 05:30
The Ministry of Health last night announced another human infection of the bird flu, bringing the total number of reported cases to 11.
The latest case was a 26-year-old female farmer in Zhangpu County, East China's Fujian Province. She fell ill on January 10, showing symptoms of fever and pneumonia. Her samples later tested positive for H5N1 virus at China Disease Prevention and Control Centre.
The woman is now in stable condition after treatment, according to a notice on the ministry's website.
The ministry has already reported the case to the World Health Organization, Hong Kong and Macao health authorities and some neighbouring countries.
The most recent case before this one was reported on January 23. Six of the 11 human cases have died.
Health workers did not find any evidence of the bird flu epidemic in the area where the Fujian woman lived, the ministry said.
Earlier, China confirmed the first outbreak of bird flu in nearly a month, which killed about 15,000 poultry in North China's Shanxi Province.
The Ministry of Agriculture said late on Tuesday night that the virulent H5N1 strain was discovered at a farm in Yijing Town of Yangquan city on February 2 and 3.
The outbreak has been brought under control after local authorities implemented contingency plans, the ministry said.
Veterinary workers would have vaccinated all poultry near the site of the outbreak by today, local officials said yesterday.
"In addition to culling 187,745 poultry within 3 kilometres from the affected areas, we are giving shots to 230,000 head of poultry mainly chickens within a 5-kilometre radius," Jin Aiyin, an official with the Yangquan Agricultural Bureau, said.
Since May 2005, the Chinese mainland has reported more than 30 outbreaks of fatal bird flu among poultry. All but one have been lifted from quarantine isolation, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
In Hong Kong, a 20-month-old boy who visited Sichuan Province during Lunar New Year and showed symptoms of respiratory infection on February 4 has tested negative for H5N1.
The Hospital Authority said in a statement yesterday that the boy was still in isolation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and was in stable condition.
Hong Kong's Acting Deputy Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Vincent Liu told a radio programme yesterday that the government has decided to amend laws to ban people from raising backyard poultry.
The risk of cross contamination between wild birds and poultry has risen because of an increasing number of local birds and poultry testing positive for the H5N1 virus, he explained.
Bird flu in Africa
On the international front, a "highly pathogenic" strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found on a large chicken farm in Nigeria the first reported case of the disease in Africa, the World Organization for Animal Health said yesterday.
The deadly virus the same strain that has spread from Asia to Europe and the Middle East infected a farm in northern Kaduna state that has 46,000 birds, Alex Thiermann, an expert for the Paris-based organization, said.
"We are really not dealing with a backyard operation," he said. He confirmed that it was Africa's first known bird flu case. "We are dealing with a new continent."
All birds on the farm have been killed and their bodies disposed of, he said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/09/content_518410.htm
China reports two new human cases of bird flu
25/02/2006 - 14:44:18
The Chinese government today reported two new human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a nine-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman.
The girl lives in the south-eastern coastal province of Zhejiang and the woman is a farmer from Anhui province in the east, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Health Ministry.
The report didn’t say whether the woman worked with poultry or how the girl might have become infected.
The announcement raised the number of human cases of bird flu reported on China’s mainland to 14 since October, with eight deaths.
I hope this is not a dupe.
Thursday, February 9, 2006 (Beijing):
China has said a 26-year-old woman in a south eastern province has contracted bird flu, becoming the country's 11th human case of the deadly virus.
The Chinese Health Ministry confirmed that the woman in Fujian, who was surnamed Liu, tested posited for the H5N1 strain.
Of the 10 previous human cases in China, seven have died.
The official Xinhua news agency said there has been no outbreak of bird flu among birds detected in the area of Fujian's Zhangpu county, where the woman lived.
The confirmation of the virus came the same day that authorities reported Africa's first cases of the H5N1 strain, in an outbreak on a poultry farm in Nigeria.
Nigeria has ordered the quarantine and culling of any fowl suspected of carrying bird flu in hopes of halting its spread. (AP)
11 February 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18925383.100A MASSIVE analysis of flu viruses has finally confirmed what everyone suspected: the H5N1 virus has been circulating in Chinese poultry for over a decade.
Yi Guan at Shantou University, China, and his colleagues studied samples from 13,000 migratory birds and 50,000 market poultry in south-east China between January 2004 and June 2005. They found H5N1 in around 2 per cent of apparently healthy ducks and geese, and also in some chickens.
Most importantly, the virus's genes formed geographic clusters that differed slightly between the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Hunan and Yunnan, suggesting that it must have been circulating long enough to have evolved into different strains.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0511120103), pinpoints Guangdong and neighbouring Guangxi and Hunan provinces in south-eastern China as the probable source of the virus, as H5N1 there shows the most genetic variation. The virus then "colonised" other areas: viruses from Thailand and Vietnam are most similar to viruses from Guangdong, while Vietnam appears to have been repeatedly invaded by H5N1 from Guangxi province, most recently in 2005.
In the past Chinese officials have insisted that H5N1 exists only in isolated cases in China, and did not necessarily originate there.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HKG276251.htm
--------------------------------------------
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=12935&sid=6837709&con_type=1 Alarm as couple hit by bird flu Hong Kong's infectious disease alert will not be raised despite the latest warning from Beijing that the mainland has been placed on a "high alert" following the discovery of two new human cases and official talk of the possibility of a "massive" bird flu outbreak.
Chester Yung and agencies Monday, February 27, 2006 Hong Kong's infectious disease alert will not be raised despite the latest warning from Beijing that the mainland has been placed on a "high alert" following the discovery of two new human cases and official talk of the possibility of a "massive" bird flu outbreak.
"From the human side, the level of alert [in Hong Kong] remains the same," World Health Organization spokesman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said in a telephone interview from Beijing. "Unless we discover a cluster of human cases, which means a group of people who contracted the virus from the same source, the level of alert will remain the same," she said, adding that clusters "do not happen easily." The Centre for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Department of Health said officers will maintain a close liaison with the mainland's Ministry of Health to obtain more information on the cases.
The CHP spokesman said that while people should increase their awareness and be careful with their personal hygiene, the Hong Kong alert remains at yellow. The latest announcement from Beijing raises to 14 the number of human infections reported since October. "In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Agriculture Ministry Du Qinglin said Saturday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. He called for agriculture authorities to step up disease monitoring and vaccination efforts. Outbreaks in poultry occurred last year in 32 areas throughout China, killing 163,100 chickens, ducks and other fowl.
The authorities destroyed a further 22.6 million birds to prevent the virus from spreading, Du said in a briefing for Chinese legislators. The latest human cases are a nine- year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman, both of whom were in critical condition with fever and pneumonia, the Health Ministry reported.
The girl lives in the southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang and the woman is a farmer from Anhui province in the east, the Ministry said in a report carried by Xinhua. China has reported eight deaths among its 14 human cases. The farmer, identified only by the surname Wang, had contact with sick and dead poultry that laboratory tests showed had the H5N1 flu strain, the Health Ministry said. It said she got sick on February 11. The cause of the girl's infection was under investigation, but she visited the home of relatives whose chickens died while she was there, the ministry said. She was admitted to hospital on February 10. "The two patients have been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization," Xinhua said, citing the ministry. It said people who had come into close contact with Wang or the girl, identified only by the surname You, had been put under medical observation but none had shown symptoms. China's Health Ministry has informed the WHO and unspecified other countries as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan of the situation, Xinhua said. The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. Fresh outbreaks have been reported in 14 countries since early February. Outbreaks in mainland poultry have continued despite a mass inoculation effort that the government says has vaccinated all of the country's vast flocks of chickens, ducks and other birds. China has about 5.2 billion poultry at any one time. In the latest case, Xinhua said Saturday that 13 chickens died on a farm in the village of Jitai in Anhui, prompting authorities to destroy more than 200 birds. Health officials say the virus probably is being spread by migratory wild birds. They say more human cases are inevitable if China cannot prevent outbreaks among its poultry flocks. Hong Kong health officials have outlawed backyard rearing of chickens and increased the surveillance of live poultry markets, prompting fierce criticism from the poultry industry. About 100 backyard poultry owners staged a protest Sunday against the law banning backyard poultry farming.
Brandishing placards, they marched to Central Government Offices where they handed in a petition claiming the legislation breached their rights. In a separate issue, the government has been urged to double the size of its free Tamiflu flu-shot program for all people aged 65 and over. People's Health Actions said Sunday the program covers only a quarter of the elderly population - which is far below the level of many Western countries such as 65.5 percent in the United States and 70.9 percent in Australia. Group chairman Lo Wing-lok said additional cash needed to extend the program would be well spent.
The patient, surnamed Lao, died Thursday after all rescue work failed. He was 32 and a local resident of Guangzhou.
He started to show symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Feb. 22.
Preliminary investigation shows the patient had been long staying at a nearby live poultry slaughtering site when he carried out a market survey.
The provincial government immediately launched emergency measures to prevent and control the disease.
People in close contact with the patient have been isolated for medical observation. The places where the patient had been staying around have been disinfected to prevent the disease from spreading.
The information has been reported to the Ministry of Health.
Statistics show the Ministry of Health have reported 14 human cases of bird flu. Eight of them died and the rest have recovered.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/04/content_4255851.htm
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-26 08:34
China warned of the threat of a massive avian flu outbreak among birds in the country as it reported two new human cases of the virus, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.
Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin said China culled 23 million fowl in 2005 as it sought to halt the spread of the disease. Of those, 163,000 were found to have the H5N1 strain of bird flu, according to Xinhua.
Du said his ministry would stick to consistent epidemic monitoring, diagnosing and reporting, and strengthen poultry vaccinating and virus testing.
"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak could not be ruled out," Du said, repeating a similar warning issued earlier this week when he said a big outbreak could occur in the spring.
Chinese farmers raised about 15 billion poultry in 2005, or 21 percent of the world's total, Du said.
Earlier on Saturday, Xinhua reported that two new human cases of bird flu had been diagnosed in the east of the country.
A Chinese girl in eastern Zhejiang province and a woman farmer in neighbouring Anhui province were currently in critical condition, Xinhua cited the Ministry of Health as saying.
The woman farmer, who was diagnosed on Feb. 11 with symptoms of fever and pneumonia, had come into contact with sick and dead poultry, Xinhua said.
The girl, a nine-year-old from Anji County, had visited relatives who kept poultry but it was not clear how she had been infected, Xinhua said.
China's Ministry of Health has reported the two new cases to the World Health Organisation, and to authorities in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other countries and regions, Xinhua said.
The latest cases brought the total number of human cases of bird flu in China to 14. Eight of those have died while four have recovered.
China has reported more than 30 outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in both poultry and wild birds in a dozen provinces in the past year.
Bird flu is highly contagious among poultry and can spread through an entire flock in hours. It remains difficult for humans to catch but has killed more than 90 people worldwide since late 2003.
So far most human victims of the virus have had direct or indirect contact with infected birds, but there are fears the virus will mutate into a strain easily passed among people, causing a pandemic in which millions could die.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-02/26/content_524014.htm
This is the first compensation case related to the bird flu epidemic in China.
On February 24, the Hunanese family of a woman surnamed Long reported to CPIC LIfe's Shenzhen branch, where Long's company had insurance for her since January 1 this year, that Long had died ofbird flu during the Chinese Spring Festival holiday.
CPIC Life confirmed here Friday that its Shenzhen branch has finished the 100,000-yuan compensation.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/04/content_4255968.htm
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03040601/H5N1_Guangdong_Fatality.html
Commentary
Suspect Fatal Case of H5N1 Bird Flu in Guangdong
Recombinomics Commentary
March 4, 2006
A man has died of suspected H5N1 avian influenza in southern China, just over the border from Hong Kong, a local newspaper said on Saturday.
The 32-year-old man frequently visited wet markets where chickens were often slaughtered, the South China Morning Post said.
He developed fever and pneumonia on February 22 and died on March 2, Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said in a statement late on Friday.
The above comments suggest H5N1 bird flu is spreading in China. There have been no official reported H5N1 outbreaks in Guangdong, although media reports indicate there have been several outbreaks. Moreover, H5N1 has been confirmed in wild birds in Hong Kong on several occasions recently and an H5N1 recombinant sequence (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03030601/H5N1_Recombination_Guangdong_M.html) from Guangdong was just deposited at GenBank.
H5N1 in Hong Kong is said to be related to prior H5N1 isolates from Japan and Korea. Although antibodies have been reported in poultry workers from those countries, there have been no human fatalities reported for this strain.
Many of the changes in H5N1 have been linked to recombination, which can have significant effects on the ability to infect humans. The first confirmed fatal infection by the Qinghai strain of H5N1 had the S227N (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/10220501/H5N1_H9N2_Recombination.html) change. Publication of the sequences from Hong Kong would be useful. These sequences have been kept in a private database (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03020602/WHO_Sequence_Hoarding.html) that is password protected.
Friday a call was made to make the data public. Hong Kong has a large number of such sequences including human isolates from Indonesia, where fatal human cases are being reported on a daily basis.
This sequence data should be released immediately (http://www.recombinomics.com/PR/030306.html).
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03030601/H5N1_Recombination_Guangdong_M.html
Commentary
.
Recombination in M Gene of H5N1 Guangdong Wild Bird
Recombinomics Commentary
March 3, 2006
Researchers in Beijing have recently submitted sequences from H5N1 isolates in China under the title "A cohort of AIV H5N1 subtypes isolated from wild aquatic birds and domestic poultry revealed rapid transmission, frequent reassortment, and identifiable recombination events." The sequences from A/wild bird/Guangdong (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/viewer.fcgi?db=nucleotide&val=61698042)/314/2004(H5N1) showed evidence of both reassortment and recombination. The eight genes were derived from isolates related to tree sparrow sequences from Henan, a duck smuggled onto Quemoy Island in 2003, and a series isolates from of Hong Kong ducks in the late 1970's
PB2 shows evidence of extensive recombination with a variety of parents that have clustered polymorphisms. Recombination is also seen in the M gene. The 2004 wild bird sequence was closely related to a series of Hong Kong waterfowl such as A/duck/Hong Kong (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=Nucleotide&list_uids=82654685&dopt=GenBank)/365/1978(H4N6) isolated in the late 1970's. However, there wee also several polymorphisms that were shared with the H5N1 Qinghai isolates. Most of these polymorphisms were clustered in two regions (C306T, C315T, A318G) and (G580A, T604G, G610A, T640C, G645A, G670A). The clusters represent "identifiable recombination events".
These extensive regions of recombination highlight the need for a current and robust database of flu sequences. Many of these sequences were recently deposited at Genbank, although the samples were collected in the 1970's. H5N1 sequences have been deposited in a more timely manner, but there are still significant delays. These delays were highlighted (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03020602/WHO_Sequence_Hoarding.html) in today's Science which described a private WHO database with recent important sequences such has human sequences from Indonesia and bird sequences from many countries in Europe. In the past, H5N1 sequences have been delayed for 6-12 months, pending publication.
H5N1 is evolving and migrating at a record pace. Recent sequences from Russia (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02220601/H5N1_Astrakhan_NA.html), Nigeria (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02240604/H5N1_Chicken_Nigeria_Sequence.html), France (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02240603/H5N1_WB_France_Sequence.html), and Italy (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02250601/H5N1_Swan_Italy_Sequence.html) identifies formation of new clades related to the Qinghai strain. In addition there are human (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02260601/H5N1_Astrakhan_Human.html) and American (http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02260602/H5N1_Astrakhan_American.html) sequences that are being acquired.
Immediate deposit of the valuable H5N1 sequences and all recent sero-types identified in recent expanded surveillance worldwide would facilitate tracking of H5N1 sequences and development of effective vaccines (http://www.recombinomics.com/PR/030306.html).
Map (http://www.recombinomics.com/H5N1_Map_2005_QinghaiL.html)
What is going on????
Guangzhou alert to bird flu
Zhang Liuhao
2006-03-07
PEOPLE with fevers above 37.5 degrees Celsius are required to be hospitalized in Guangzhou, after the Guangdong Province's capital reported a human death from the bird flu on Sunday, the New Express said today.
One of Guangzhou's major hospitals, the designated hospital to receive bird flu patients, has been rearranging their wards, it said. They are moving ordinary patients together to set aside more rooms for potential human bird flu cases. The report didn't identify the hospital by name.
The hospital is also going to issue its emergency response plan for the quarantine of patients and the disinfection of the hospital, in case of a human avian influenza outbreak.
Another Guangdong newspaper, the Information Times, said the Guangzhou government would vaccinate all the city's live poultry by the end of this month to lower the possibilities of more bird flu outbreaks and human infections.
The Ministry of Health confirmed a 32-year-old man in Guangzhou died o
I find the silence disquieting. Don't you ?
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars.
Desiderata
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=h5n1%20guangdong&sa=N&tab=wn
BEIJING
China has reported its eighth human death from bird flu and says researchers suspect contamination from dead poultry might be to blame for cases that have occurred in areas without outbreaks in birds.
The latest death was a 20-year-old female farmer from the county of Suining in the southern province of Hunan, the Health Ministry said Friday on its Web site. It identified her only by the surname Long and said she had handled poultry.
Long fell ill Jan. 27 and died Feb. 4, the ministry said. It said laboratory tests confirmed she had the virulent H5N1 flu strain, and said the results were reported to the World Health Organization.
It was the second death reported this week, following an announcement Wednesday that a 26-year-old woman in an area with no reported outbreaks in poultry died of the H5N1 strain.
The woman in Hunan was China's 12th bird flu case, and the government says one-third of them were in areas with no cases in poultry.
"According to expert analysis, the reason for these cases is that poultry that died of the virus contaminated their surroundings," a ministry spokesman, Mao Chun'an, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
However, Mao was quoted as saying, "we still don't have precise information as to a specific channel for (spreading infection in) these human cases of bird flu."
The report didn't give any other details.
China has reported 29 bird flu outbreaks in poultry since October in areas throughout the country. The government has destroyed millions of chickens, ducks and other poultry to contain them.
Also Friday, the government said 35 farm workers have been put under medical observation after an outbreak killed 15,000 birds on their farm in the northern city of Yangquan, in Shanxi province.
The farm workers have been confined to their homes and are receiving medical checkups twice a day, Xinhua said, citing provincial officials.
Authorities have destroyed 187,745 poultry within three kilometers (twomiles) of the farm in an effort to contain the outbreak, Xinhua said.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=273790&rel_no=1
2006-02-11 21:47 ©2006 OhmyNew
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/03040601/H5N1_Guangdong_Fatality.html
Man dies of suspected bird flu in Guangzhou: report
Mar 3, 2006 — HONG KONG (Reuters) - A man has died of suspected H5N1 avian influenza in southern China, just over the border from Hong Kong, a local newspaper said on Saturday.
The 32-year-old man frequently visited wet markets where chickens were often slaughtered, the South China Morning Post said.
He developed fever and pneumonia on February 22 and died on March 2, Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said in a statement late on Friday.
Hong Kong lies less than two hours away from Guangzhou by train and the flow of travelers between the two cities is heavy.
The risk of avian influenza appearing in the city was increasing, CHP head Leung Pak-yin was quoted as saying. "We expect there could be human cases in Hong Kong and we all need to be well prepared for that."
If Beijing confirms the case as avian influenza, Hong Kong public hospitals and clinics will be required to report any flu cases with unclear diagnoses to the CHP, the Post said.
Chinese authorities had attempted to muzzle news coverage, the daily said.
"The Guangdong propaganda and health departments jointly issued a notice to local media not to report on the case, saying there should be no coverage until it was confirmed," it said.
Although Hong Kong has been free of human avian influenza cases since early 2003, the city continues to screen the temperatures of people entering the city at immigration, the CHP said.
Experts familiar with the situation in China have always maintained that there have been outbreaks of H5N1 in birds in Guangdong province as early as the first half of 2005. Beijing has always denied this.
Despite outbreaks in several other areas of mainland China, this is the first time that Chinese officials have said that there could be a case in Guangdong province.
11 February 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/...mg18925383.100 (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18925383.100)A MASSIVE analysis of flu viruses has finally confirmed what everyone suspected: the H5N1 virus has been circulating in Chinese poultry for over a decade.
Yi Guan at Shantou University, China, and his colleagues studied samples from 13,000 migratory birds and 50,000 market poultry in south-east China between January 2004 and June 2005. They found H5N1 in around 2 per cent of apparently healthy ducks and geese, and also in some chickens.
Most importantly, the virus's genes formed geographic clusters that differed slightly between the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Hunan and Yunnan, suggesting that it must have been circulating long enough to have evolved into different strains.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0511120103), pinpoints Guangdong and neighbouring Guangxi and Hunan provinces in south-eastern China as the probable source of the virus, as H5N1 there shows the most genetic variation. The virus then "colonised" other areas: viruses from Thailand and Vietnam are most similar to viruses from Guangdong, while Vietnam appears to have been repeatedly invaded by H5N1 from Guangxi province, most recently in 2005.
In the past Chinese officials have insisted that H5N1 exists only in isolated cases in China, and did not necessarily originate there
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