Bird flu well under control in China: health minister

The epidemic of bird flu in China has been kept well under control and no human infection has occurred as a result of the government's comprehensive preventive and control measures, Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang said after attending a global meeting on pandemic preparedness in Ottawa.

Five Chinese provinces have reported outbreaks of the disease brought about by migratory birds but none has spread and there has been no human case of infection, Gao told a press conference on Tuesday.

Health ministers and officials from 30 countries and eight UN organizations gathered here to discuss responses to the avian flu epidemic and a possible pandemic of human flu.

The Chinese government has attached great importance to the matter and taken comprehensive, systematic measures, which have shown satisfactory results, he said.

Command centers charged with dealing with the disease have been established at various governmental levels and the national command center is chaired by a vice premier of the State Council.

At the same time, a mechanism of joint prevention and joint control has been established between the governments and relevant agencies. As a result, good cooperation among different social sectors and timely responses are guaranteed, said the minister.

A strict surveillance system has also been developed with 192 surveillance sites to ensure swift detection of an outbreak.

Strict control measures, including killing all poultry within three km of the breakout site, and very strict quarantine measures are taken.

The country has also established an open and transparent communications system, ensuring the timely report and information exchange in case of an outbreak.

Measures to develop vaccines and drug have also been strengthened. China has the capacity to produce vaccines and drug against avian influenza and a large number of domestic poultry have been vaccinated, he said.

The research on specific drug for human flu is also under way, the minister disclosed.

China also has very close cooperation with UN agencies and other countries. Frequent information and experience sharing, and technical assistance from outside is also very important, said the minister.

No human infection of bird flu reported in China

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said Thursday that it hasn't received any report on human infection of bird flu.

In an interview with Xinhua, a MOH official, preferring anonymity, said that they have noticed that some overseas media carried stories saying "a girl died of flu-like symptom in bird-flu-affected area in central China's Hunan province".

"But the ministry hasn't received any report on human infectionof bird flu so far," said the official.

An official with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) also said that they are watching closely on the issue. The MOA has worked out an "emergency plan under the situation of human infection", said the official.

The official said that if cases of human infection occure, the MOA will cooperate closely with the MOH to trace the source of theinfection and strengthen quarantine and vaccination.

The Information Office of the State Council has arranged a press conference Friday. Jia Youling, China's Chief Veterinarian and director in charge of veterinary department under the MOA, will be invited to brief media on latest bird flu controlefforts in China.

A Hong Kong-based newspaper reported Thursday that a 12-year-old girl has died suffering flu-like symptoms in a village in Hunan Province where the third outbreak of bird flu in a week has been confirmed.

He Yin and her 10-year-old brother fell ill about a week ago after eating a chicken that had died from an unspecified illness in the village of Wantang, the South China Morning Post said, quoting their father, He Tieguang. "We had dead chickens before and nobody has ever got sick because of that. So I thought it's okay," her father was quoted as saying.

So far there was no evidence linking her death to the outbreak of bird flu in the village in Hunan province and none of the adults in her family had shown any flu symptoms, the paper said.

China reported an outbreak of bird flu in Hunan this week following cases in northern Inner Mongolia and eastern Anhui province which it said had all been brought under control.

The World Health Organization has said the H5N1 strain of bird flu is endemic in poultry across much of Asia. Health experts fear it may only be a matter of time before it develops the ability to pass easily from human to human.

H5N1 has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries and reached as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.

Source: Xinhua