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China Reports First Human Cases of Bird Flu

November 16, 2005

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China has confirmed its first three human cases of bird flu, two of them fatal. It's the fifth country where the virus has made the jump from birds to people.

The fatalities were a 12-year-old girl in Hunan and a 24-year-old female poultry worker in Anhui, said Roy Wadia, a spokesman in Beijing for the World Health Organization. The third case was the girl's nine-year-old brother, who has recovered.

China says it has vaccinated 320 million birds in Northeastern China's Liaoning province, which has also been hard hit by bird flu. The province has also destroyed more than 10 million chickens, ducks and other birds.

Vietnam, meanwhile, reported bird flu outbreaks in two more provinces -- northern Vinh Phuc and central Quang Ngai. Twelve cities and provinces in Vietnam have been affected since the outbreak began about a month ago.

In Indonesia, the government is preparing to deploy troops and volunteers to conduct door-to-door checks to find birds infected with the virus.

"We have to address this problem quickly. There should be a door-to-door inspection by volunteers, university students and military personnel to ensure the areas are clear from bird flu," president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.

In England, officials said that more than 50 birds imported from Taiwan were the most likely source of a bird flu outbreak at a UK quarantine center last month.

The study, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said a consignment of 101 Taiwanese mesia birds had been the most likely source of the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain at Pegasus Birds, in Essex.

It said it was impossible to say how many of the 53 birds killed in the outbreak had died of H5N1 because tissue samples from one of the finch-like birds had been pooled with those of a blue headed parrot from Surinam, South America.

Initial reports had indicated that the parrot had introduced the virus, but today's report said it appears that the infection had been brought in by the mesias.

The study added that the bird flu - of a type most commonly associated with Chinese ducks - had been passed between the mesias, but said there was no evidence of its transmission to other species in the quarantine center.

Debby Reynolds, the government's chief veterinary officer, said the apparent lack of transmission between species would be of "particular interest to the international community," and described the new study, carried out by the National Emergency Epidemiology Group, as "important."

At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan, South Korea, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged governments to improve communications and to encourage the private sector to help prepare for outbreaks before they happen.

"New global pandemics, like avian influenza, require new, concerted action," she said. "We must increase the transparency of our political systems. We need to improve our ability to communicate accurate, relevant information quickly to the international community, and we must encourage our private sector to help us prepare for outbreaks before they happen."

The H5N1 virus that has infected millions of birds in Asia has recently spread into Europe and public health experts fear the virus may mutate and start spreading among humans. If so, it could spread quickly, sickening and killing millions.

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