China confirms first three human cases of bird flu
China reported its first three confirmed human cases of bird flu today as the government raced to vaccinate billions of chickens, ducks, and other poultry in a massive effort to stop the spread of the virus. The World Health Organization said two of those cases were fatal.
The Health Ministry confirmed two human cases in the central province of Hunan and one in the eastern province of Anhui, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Both areas reported outbreaks in poultry in the past month. The fatalities were a 12-year-old girl in Hunan and a 24-year-old female poultry worker in Anhui, said Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in Beijing.
Experts are especially worried about the potential for bird flu to spread and mutate in China because of its vast poultry flocks and their close contact with people. It also is a major migration route for wildfowls, which experts say might be spreading the virus.
China has reported 11 outbreaks in chickens and ducks over the past month nationwide, prompting authorities to destroy millions of birds in an effort to contain the virus. The government also announced an ambitious effort Tuesday to vaccinate all the country's more than 14 billion farm birds.
Chinese and WHO experts were studying the case of a 12-year-old girl and her 9-year-old brother, both of whom fell ill after their village in Hunan suffered a bird flu outbreak in poultry. The girl died, but her brother recovered. Chinese officials initially said the girl, her brother, and a schoolteacher, who all fell ill, had tested negative for bird flu. But the government reopened the investigation and asked WHO for assistance. WHO experts traveled to Hunan this week.
The government had not previously disclosed that there were any suspected human cases in Anhui, where an October 20 outbreak in the city of Tiancheng killed about 550 birds.
Experts also are testing a poultry worker who fell ill in the northeastern province of Liaoning, which has suffered four outbreaks. All farm birds in the province were ordered vaccinated early this month, said Fu Jingwu, deputy director of the provincial Animal Health Supervision and Management Bureau. He said the effort covered 320 million birds. The province also has destroyed more than 15 million chickens, ducks, and other birds.
Also today, the State Council, which is China's cabinet, discussed enacting regulations on bird flu prevention, epidemic monitoring, and emergency contingency plans, state television said. The council also said it would offer tax breaks and subsidies to help counter the effects of bird flu outbreaks.
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