FIRST IN CHINA: Health officials describe fatal cases in a poultry worker and 12-year-old girl whose brother, 9, was infected and recovered.
By Associated Press
Published November 17, 2005
BEIJING - China reported its first human cases of bird flu on the mainland Wednesday, including at least one fatality, as health workers armed with vaccine and disinfectant raced to inoculate billions of chickens and other poultry in a massive campaign to contain the virus.
The World Health Organization confirmed the virulent strain experts fear could cause a worldwide flu pandemic has now infected humans in the world's most populous nation.
China's Health Ministry reported confirmed cases of infection with the deadly H5N1 strain in a poultry worker, who died, and a 9-year-old boy, who fell ill in central Hunan province but recovered, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It said the boy's 12-year-old sister, who died, was a suspected case.
Experts worry the virus could mutate and spread in China due to its huge poultry flocks and their contact with humans. It also has migrating geese and other wild birds that might carry the disease.
"This is a psychologically telling moment for a country that has never had bird flu cases in the past in humans," said Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in Beijing. "This will drive home to citizens across the country that this can happen in our own backyards," he said.
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.
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.
China's response to bird flu and the scale of its antidisease effort have been in striking contrast to its handling of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, when it was criticized for secrecy and failure to respond to foreign pleas for cooperation.
Since the SARS outbreak, the government has set up testing laboratories and a health warning network. It has promised to be more open about epidemics and to cooperate with other nations.
Chinese officials initially said the 12-year-old girl who died in Hunan tested negative for the virus, as did her brother and a teacher who fell ill at the same time. But the government later asked WHO to help re-examine the case.
Wadia said Chinese investigators were confident bird flu killed the girl, but she wasn't a confirmed case under WHO guidelines; her body was cremated and there were no samples adequate for testing.
The 24-year-old poultry worker died in the eastern province of Anhui, where there was an outbreak last month. Wadia said the victim didn't live near that site and instead had contact with birds that died in her own village.
Also Wednesday, Vietnam reported bird flu outbreaks in three more provinces, bringing to 12 the number of cities and provinces affected recently. Vietnam is in the middle of a campaign to destroy all poultry in most of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, its two biggest cities.
