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Chinese Scientist Urges Urgent Preparation for Human Transmission Bird Flu

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report by Li Weiwei, carried by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 26 December: Regarding the currently much-asked question of whether or not the H5N1 avian influenza virus will cause the next influenza pandemic, academic Hou Yunde, director of the Research Centre for National Viral Biotechnology Programme of the Chinese Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said on 26 December: Individual cases of human infections of H5N1 avian influenza will continue to emerge, with the risk of human-to-human transmission further heightened. We should make all the necessary preparations and mobilize as a matter of urgency to respond to various contingencies.

At a seminar held here in Beijing on the development of science and technology for the prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza, Hou Yunde said: Avian influenza is a virus that affects birds. Under normal circumstances, it is extremely difficult to be passed to other species, including the human species. The H5N1 virus has now spread across the world, to an unprecedented degree of severity. Although only 141 people have contracted H5N1 worldwide so far, its mortality is high. The virus may spread rapidly through chicken populations and increase the chance of infection by humans or pigs.

Hou Yunde maintained that the H5N1 avian influenza virus is a strain that has pandemic potential, because it may eventually mutate into a strain that is transmissible between humans. Once mutation happens, it will cease to be an avian virus and become a new subtype of human influenza virus.

It is learned that China is currently in the amber status in terms of avian influenza prevention and control, which means that humans have caught the new influenza virus subtype and morbidity has occurred, but there is no evidence that the virus is capable of effective and sustained transmission within human populations.

Hou Yunde said: Although we cannot conclude that the H5N1 avian influenza virus that is spreading right now will definitely cause a pandemic, we should be properly prepared to prevent and control any human (avian) influenza pandemic and do all we can to prevent the new type that is capable of human-to-human transmission from emerging in China. The patients who have caught the virus should receive early treatment and those in close contact with them should be isolated and given drug prophylaxis.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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