Flutterbywingz
Taking Flight
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Registered: Jul 2004
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BEIJING, China (AP) -- China on Wednesday reported its first three confirmed human cases of bird flu 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 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.
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 wild fowl, 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.
Xinhua did not elaborate on the human cases, but Chinese and World Health Organization experts were studying the case of a 12-year-old girl and her 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 there were any suspected human cases in Anhui, where an Oct. 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 Wednesday, 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.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
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11-16-2005 05:19 PM
