Woman dies of suspected bird flu in Shanghai
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A woman has died of what could be bird flu in the eastern Chinese city of Shanghai, state television said on Thursday.
The patient, a 29-year-old female migrant worker, died on Tuesday of a pneumonia of unconfirmed origin, an official at the Shanghai municipality information office told Reuters.
The case is under investigation for bird flu, Shanghai Television said.
China has recorded 15 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans since late last year, 10 of whom have died.
Doctors and nurses who tended the patient were under quarantine, said a source at the hospital, adding it was awaiting final test results.
"It's a suspected case, but not confirmed," the source told Reuters.
The Ministry of Health declined immediate comment. The World Health Organisation said it was investigating.
"We are verifying this rumour at the moment. We are still treating this as a rumour since there is no confirmation yet," said Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, WHO spokeswoman in Beijing.
Epidemiologists fear that bird flu could trigger a pandemic if it mutates to a form which can be transmitted from human to human.
Shanghai. January 27. INTERFAX-CHINA - No evidence has been found suggesting that a migrant worker who died in Shanghai from bird flu on March 21 had any direct contact with poultry, city authorities told Interfax today.
The Ministry of Health confirmed on March 24 that bird flu caused the death of the 29-year-old woman. Shanghai municipal Department of Health had initially said she developed symptoms of “coughing and fever?and died of unexplained pneumonia.
Director of the information office at Shanghai municipal Department of Health saidthere was insufficient evidence to prove the woman had direct contact with poultry, and that the cause of her infection remains under investigation.
"No abnormal condition has been found among the people who had close contact with the woman," he added.
The health administration in Shanghai says it has taken appropriate measures according to the city's bird flu response plan and people who have had close contact with the woman have been put under clinical observation in isolation.
The death toll of bird flu human infections in China now stands at 11, and the number to have contracted the infection 15.
Dai Ping from the Shanghai Agricultural Commission said there was no bird flu epidemic among poultry in the municipality.
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| 2006-03-26 14:28:06 Xinhua | |
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The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Li's blood samples were tested positive for H5N1 after the municipal health department had suspected she was suffering from bird flu.
The national Center for Disease Control (CDC) on Thursday re-tested Li's blood samples and confirmed the previous results. The tests were made in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the ministry.
Those having close contacts with Li have been put under medical observation by local health authorities. So far, none of them has reported abnormal symptoms.
The ministry did not say how or where the victim might have been infected with the disease and there has been no confirmation of any outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the city.
The ministry has reported the case to the WHO, the regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and several countries.
Li's death brings the total number of human cases of bird flu in China to 16. Ten of the victims have died.
Worldwide a total of 185 human cases of bird flu that caused 104 deaths have been reported to the WHO as of Friday, according to the WHO's website.
There is still room for improvement in China's bird flu surveillance and early warning to the public following bird flu outbreaks, Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director of the Western Pacific, said on Wednesday in Beijing.
Shanghai's health authorities have intensified surveillance and preventive measures in the city which has a population of about 18 million people.
The city's 160 medical departments with fever outpatient service have stepped up screening of patients. Control of animal and poultry trade have also been tightened.
Booklets on bird flu prevention have been sent to communities in a bid to raise public awareness of the disease.
"There's no need to panic, but it's necessary to pay close attention to personal hygiene and avoid contact with sick or dead poultry," said Zhang Yongxin, a professor with the Huashan Hospital under the Fudan University in Shanghai.
Experts have been worrying that the bird flu virus could mutate into a form that could easily spread among people, causing a global pandemic.
China has agreed to share virus samples from bird flu outbreaks in poultry with WHO to help develop anti-bird flu drugs and vaccines, according to WHO officials.
The first batch of 20 samples should arrive at WHO's overseas laboratories within weeks, said Julie Hall, Coordinator of Epidemic Alert and Response in WHO's Beijing office.
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Measures to Stem Bird Flu from Spreading Through Market
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has taken a range of measures to prevent bird flu spread in domestic market, its sources said on Monday.
The MOC has established a quick response mechanism in this area, making a daily report on the commodity market in the bird flu epidemic zone and monitoring the sales and price fluctuations of fowl and eggs in 113 major cities across the country.
Meanwhile, local authorities have also enhanced relevant regulations over poultry wholesale and retail enterprises, asking them to provide certificates so as to guarantee that products came from reliable sources.
The MOC stepped up management over poultry and livestock culling, urging slaughterhouses to conduct intensified disinfection over poultry transport vehicles as well as loading and unloading equipment.
Moreover, the ministry ordered local departments not to prohibit the transport of qualified and examined poultry products from epidemic zones, so as to safeguard the normal circulation of these products.
This year, China has reported three outbreaks of bird flu among poultry, a sharp decrease compared with 49 such cases during the same period of 2004, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
A total of 35 bird flu outbreaks have been reported in China since 2005, which sickened 194,000 fowl and culled 186,000 of them, the MOA claimed. About 22.8 million fowl were culled to halt the disease from spreading and all the outbreaks have been contained.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2006)
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