China confirms human bird flu cases

By Brian Rhoads

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Ministry of Health on Wednesday
confirmed the country’s first-ever human cases of bird flu,
reporting two in the central province of Hunan and one in
eastern Anhui, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The agency’s brief dispatch gave no further details. China
has been trying to contain about a dozen outbreaks of the
deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus among poultry in at
least six provinces in the past month.

The World Health Organization said it had been informed by
China that a 9-year-old boy from Hunan province suspected of
having bird flu was indeed stricken by the H5N1 virus, as was
his 12-year-old sister, who fell ill and died in October.

In October, China reported that hundreds of chickens and
ducks had died in Wantang village in Xiangtan County, near
Hunan’s provincial capital of Changsha. After mass culling and
disinfection, the area was declared free of bird flu this week.

Chinese officials initially reported that the two children
in Hunan had suffered pneumonia and not bird flu, but later
invited international experts in to help confirm the cases.

The boy was discharged from hospital last weekend.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said it had not
reached a final conclusion regarding the two cases.

WHO spokesman Roy Wadia said the third case was identified
as a woman in Anhui province. The global health organization
had sent a team of experts to Hunan, but was not involved in an
investigation in Anhui.

“It’s not a surprise. It shows that China like other
countries that have bird flu in poultry can have human cases,”
Wadia said.

Xinhua did not identify any of the victims. Anhui reported
an outbreak of avian influenza among poultry on Monday. Xinhua
did not elaborate on the condition of any of the three cases.

Wadia also said a teacher in Hunan had fallen ill with
symptoms of pneumonia and was still considered a suspect bird
flu case. A poultry worker in the northeastern province of
Liaoning, where an outbreak was reported among domestic birds
this month, also was considered a suspected case, he said.

Human cases of bird flu have killed more than 60 people in
Asia since 2003, mainly in Vietnam and Thailand.

So far the H5N1 strain has not shown it can spread easily
among people, but scientists fear it may mutate into a form
that can do so and spark a global pandemic.

“Whether it happens in China, Vietnam, or any other country
that hasn’t reported bird flu yet remains to be seen,” Wadia
said.

Outbreaks among poultry also have been reported in China’s
western region of Xinjiang, and in the central province of
Hubei and the northern region of Inner Mongolia.