China registers human bird flu cases
China yesterday confirmed its first human cases of bird flu, adding to fears of a global pandemic. The country's Ministry of Health reported two cases in the central province of Hunan and one in eastern Anhui, after initial reports stated that the two victims in Hunan had suffered from pneumonia.
China yesterday confirmed its first human cases of bird flu, adding to fears of a global pandemic. The country's Ministry of Health reported two cases in the central province of Hunan and one in eastern Anhui, after initial reports stated that the two victims in Hunan had suffered from pneumonia.
The WHO said that it had been informed by China that a nine year old boy from Hunan was suffering from the H5N1 virus, although he was recently discharged from hospital, as was his 12 year old sister who fell ill and died last month. The third case was identified only as 'a woman in the Anhui province'.
In October China reported that hundreds of chickens and ducks had died in Wantang village in Xiangtan County, near Hunan's provincial capital of Changsha, but after mass culling and disinfection this week the area has been declared free of bird flu.
The H5N1 form of bird flu has already killed more than 60 people in Asia and is endemic in poultry in parts of the region.
WHO spokesman Roy Wadia also reported that a teacher in Hunan has fallen ill with symptoms of pneumonia and is being considered a suspect bird flu case, along with a poultry worker in the northeastern province of Liaoning, where an outbreak was recently reported among domestic birds.