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South China Region Takes Measures to Stop Bird Flu From Further Spreading

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 09:00 CST

South China region takes measures to stop bird flu from further spreading

NANNING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China has been adopting a range of emergency measures to bar the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu known H5N1 from further spreading into human beings.

Tan Mingjie, deputy head of the regional health bureau, said Wednesday that the prevention and control measures included improved training of medical workers with health organizations at various levels.

The emergency measures include raising workers' sensibility toward the outbreak of a bird flu pandemic, tightening the awareness of the people with close contact with poultry, and enhanced publicity and guidance.

In the meantime, different health organizations in Guangxi autonomous region have been told to install special outpatient services for fever patients so that patients with high fever, especially those with infectious respiratory diseases, could be spotted, treated and diagnosed in time.

Personnel working with the China Disease Prevention and Control Center (CDC) have been assigned to clearly defined areas where they are supposed to monitor residents with close contact to poultry.

Efforts are also being made to step up supervision over the market so that there will be no chance for dead sick poultry products to enter the market, said the local official.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday confirmed a new case of human infection of the deadly H5N1 in Ziyuan County, Guangxi.

A patient, a 10-year-old girl student surnamed Tang from Baiyangping Village of Liangshui Township, Ziyuan County, fell ill with fever and pneumonia on Nov. 23. She tested positive for the H5N1 virus by the CDC.

According to a MOH press release, Tang, who has been hospitalized under emergency treatment, has reportedly recovering day by day.

She has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese government.

Those people in close contacts with the patient have been brought under medical observation by local health departments. So far, no abnormalities have been found among these people.

Currently, experts are making further investigations into the source of the bird flu virus, since no bird flu cases have been reported in the county before.

In addition, the ministry has reported the case to the WHO, the country's Hong Kong and Macao special administration regions and Taiwan, and some foreign nations, the MOH press release said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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