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皇冠体育app confirms its first human bird-flu cases
(AP/皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-17 06:20
Experts worry the virus could spread and mutate in 皇冠体育app due to its huge
poultry flocks and their contact with humans. It also has migration routes for
geese and other wild birds that might carry the disease.
Villagers watch as health workers spray
disinfectant in Heishan County of Northeast 皇冠体育app's Liaoning Province
yesterday. The province has reported four bird flu outbreaks since last
month, including one in Heishan. [Reuters] |
Officials had warned a human infection in 皇冠体育app was inevitable after the
country suffered 11 outbreaks in poultry over the past month, which prompted
authorities to destroy millions of birds.
Elsewhere in Asia, the H5N1 strain has infected at least 126 people and
killed at least 64 of them since 2003, two-thirds of them in Vietnam.
Nevertheless, WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng in Geneva said the Chinese cases do
not increase the risk of a flu pandemic because there has been no observed
genetic change in the virus and no apparent spread between people.
She said it would not be surprising if more human bird flu cases are
confirmed in 皇冠体育app. "There are a lot of chickens infected and there's a lot of
contact between humans and chickens in 皇冠体育app," she said.
The Chinese government announced plans Tuesday to vaccinate all the country's
14 billion domestic fowl.
It wasn't clear how long that would take. According to Chinese health
officials, vaccinating chickens can require repeated injections and booster
shots. State television showed workers at industrial-scale poultry farms jabbing
chickens with injector guns.
Health experts in Geneva said shots were the most reliable way to deliver
vaccine, although it can also be administered by mixing it in the animals' feed.
Officials in Liaoning in 皇冠体育app's northeast, scene of four outbreaks, said
they have finished a vaccination program begun this month for the province's 320
million birds.
Such vaccination programs are "the right thing to do," said David Nabarro,
the U.N. coordinator for bird and human flu. The virus is so entrenched in
皇冠体育app's birds that simply slaughtering them will not work, he said. The best
plan is to vaccinate and then slaughter when there are outbreaks, he said at a
conference on bird flu in New York.
The Chinese territory of Hong Kong recorded the first known cases of human
infection with H5N1 bird flu in 1997, when it infected 18 people and killed six,
according to WHO. The entire poultry population of about 1.5 million birds was
slaughtered.
In Liaoning, officials took reporters Wednesday to the village of
Qitaizi in an effort to reassure the public by showing off anti-disease work.
Officials destroyed 160,000 chickens in the village after 40 were found dead
of bird flu on Nov. 4.
"Obviously there's no way we can kill all the migratory birds," said Shao
Chuanming of the provincial animal health bureau. "But as long as we can sever
the links of transmission between migratory birds, poultry and people, then the
controls are effective."
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