China has intensified its efforts to prevent possible outbreak of human infection of bird flu following the first two human cases were confirmed in the country Wednesday.

The two confirmed cases involve a nine-year-old boy in Xiangtan County of Hunan Province and a 24-year-old woman farmer in Zongyang County of Anhui Province.

The boy has been discharged from hospital after recovery. The woman died on Nov. 10, according to the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, the ministry reported the boy's 12-year-old sister, who had similar symptoms as her brother and died on Oct. 17, as a suspected human case of bird flu infection.

To prevent outbreak of bird flu infection among human beings, Anhui Provincial Headquarters for Prevention and Control of Bird Flu has set up six special teams to deal with emergent occurrence of human cases of bird flu and worked out a series of measures against of the outbreak.

The measures include government and concerned department officials signing a contract of responsibility, compulsory vaccination of poultry, and proper handling of dead poultry and poultry died of unknown reasons.

The provincial health authorities have allocated 60 million of bird flu vaccine, 10 tons of disinfectant liquid medicine, 2,000 sets of exposure suits and a group of disinfectant instruments to concerned localities in preparation of the outbreak.

Local governments of all levels and the general public are urged to report timely whenever cases of poultry death occur. The provincial health authorities urged local hospitals to open hotlines for consultation and appointed some hospitals to specially treat humans infected with bird flu virus.

Xiangtan City of Hunan Province embarked a new round of prevention of human infection of bird flu starting Thursday after China's first two human cases was confirmed Wednesday.

In order to dispel panic among the public, local newspapers, TV and radio stations are required to carry or broadcast cases of the nine-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister who is dead, how they were treated in hospital and publicize knowledge on how to prevent human infection of bird flu.

Local medical institutions and hospitals are urged to get fully prepared in terms of materials for medical use, personnel and technically, and all medical workers are required to conduct investigation of factors related to the epidemic on patients with body temperature higher than 38 degrees Centigrade and cough.

In Xiangtan County where deadly bird flu H5N1 cases among poultry and a confirmed human case of bird flu were reported, medical observation will continue on all people who were formerly monitored after the outbreak. The nine-year-old boy and his family members will be under special monitoring. And all people who participated in culling poultry will also be under medical observation for a period of time in the future.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued Thursday an emergency plan to prevent and control outbreak of human infection of bird flu and reduce damages the epidemic brings to the health of the general public and the society.

According to the plan, in case of outbreak of human infection, local animal epidemic prevention and monitoring institutions are required to take emergency measures to monitor poultry living in areas within three kilometers of radius from the site where the infected human beings live and places the infected human has visited mostly recently. Meanwhile, samples should be taken from the dejecta of wild poultry and polluted water in ponds to get immediate knowledge of infection of domestic and wild poultry and pollution of local environment.

For the purpose of identifying the origin of the human infection, local animal epidemic prevention and monitoring institutions are also asked to cooperate with health departments to probe epidemiology and clinical symptoms of concerned patient and to find out whether the patient has contacted poultry died of disease, wild poultry or has traveled overseas.

Timely report and exchange of bird flu monitoring information are also urged for the purpose of preventing and controlling bird flu spread.

The emergency plan has the stipulation on timely informing the general public of the early warning of bird flu outbreaks and concrete measures to deal with possible outbreak of bird flu and to prevent and control such cases.

Many other localities across the country have also stepped up efforts to prevent possible occurrence of human infection of bird flu.

In Beijing, people entering and leaving residential courtyards are required to show permits starting Thursday and local schools are required to report in case students have a fever.

Local hospitals also moved to take challenge of possible human infection.

You'an Hospital, one of the hospitals designed to treat human cases of bird flu, is fully prepared and can establish special wards with 60 beds within four hours, said Liu Hui, a staff with the general office of the hospital.

The hospital has also organized special teams for treating human infection, disinfection, report of epidemic situation, and supply of medical materials.

In fact, China has worked for prevention of human infection of bird flu and for the purposing of reducing damages to people since the first outbreak of bird flu was reported in the country in October.

Hours before the confirmation of human infection was made, China decided to cut the taxes of businesses or individuals that raise, process or sell poultry, another move to boost public morale in fighting bird flu following a month that saw 11 outbreaks in the country.

The decision was made at a State Council executive meeting, which adopted nine measures and promised continued financial subsidies for vaccinating and culling poultry in bird flu-hit areas and building up modern breeding farms to prevent poultry from living side by side with humans.

The government also promised to refund value-added tax on all poultry products until the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on Wednesday issued an emergent circular to the country's entry and exit ports, urging them to strengthen prevention and control efforts against human bird flu.

China quickened its step to fight bird flu earlier this month, when a similar meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao decided to set aside two billion yuan (248 million dollars) to check the spreading of the virus.

On Tuesday, China announced plans to vaccinate its more than 14 billion farm birds, following Premier Wen's remarks last week that the country was "facing a serious situation" in controlling bird flu during his inspection tour of a bird flu-hit county in Liaoning Province, northeast China.

The H5N1 strain of the virus has killed more than 60 people in the world since 2003 and is endemic in poultry flocks in many parts of Asia.

Millions of chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry have been culled after 11 bird flu outbreaks were reported in China.

Source: Xinhua