Bird flu: China gears up

2005-10-27 14:01

Sydney - China said on Thursday that it was taking effective measures to prevent the spread of bird flu and keep it from infecting people as the world's most populous nation reported three outbreaks of the disease in a week.

Xinhua News Agency reported that premier Wen Jiabao said there had been "massive culling of domestic poultry" and strict quarantines imposed to stop the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Local residents had also been vaccinated.

Jiabao said: "China definitely can bring the bird flu under control through the above measures."

Bird flu claims 60

It was the first comment by the country's leadership since chickens, ducks and geese found in the northern Inner Mongolia region, Anhui province, in the east and central Hunan province were confirmed to have died from the disease.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people and resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of chickens in Asia since surfacing in 2003.

Health authorities feared that it could mutate into a form that could be passed from human to human, sparking a global flu pandemic and possibly killing millions of people who had little or no resistance to the virulent H5N1 strain.

There had been no reports of confirmed human cases in China. But, Hong Kong newspapers reported on Thursday that a girl from a bird flu affected village in China died from flu-like symptoms on October 15.

Flu-like symptoms

The Ming Pao Daily said He Yin, 12, and her 10-year-old brother from Wantang village in Hunan province, came down with high fever and flu-like symptoms on October 13 after eating a sick chicken.

Also on Thursday, authorities on the French island of La Reunion were examining three possible human cases of bird flu among tourists who recently visited a bird park in Thailand.

A French health ministry spokesperson Helene Monard said a 43-year-old man was hospitalised with a fever and strong headaches on Saturday, three days after returning to the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion from a weeklong holiday in Thailand.

Preliminary tests

Nineteen others who also took the same trip were questioned about their health. Among them, two had flu symptoms and Monard said their preliminary tests also were positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The French health ministry said: "Although the symptoms are not very significant, there is thus a suspicion of flu of avian origin in the framework of a close contact with birds."

Bird flu was difficult to diagnose properly in preliminary tests, and false positives were not uncommon.

International health and disaster control officials met at conferences in Ottowa, Canada, and in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to discuss ways of preventing or containing a possible human outbreaks of the disease, as countries around the world begun strengthening their controls on domestic and wild birds.

- AP