Chinese girl is latest human bird flu victim

By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING (Reuters) – A 10-year-old Chinese girl is the
latest person to be infected with bird flu, the official Xinhua
news agency reported on Tuesday, as fears grow about the spread
of the deadly disease around the globe.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) top bird flu expert
in Asia said a lack of equipment and expertise in the
continent’s rural areas was limiting efforts to contain the
virus.

Ukraine, which detected a virulent strain of avian flu in
birds at the weekend, warned the disease could spread from the
Crimean peninsula to other parts of the east European country.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu is endemic in poultry in parts
of Asia where it has infected more than 130 people, killing 69.

Human cases remain relatively rare, but there are fears the
virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from person
to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

The latest Chinese victim is a girl, surnamed Tang, from
the southern Guangxi region. She has been ill with fever and
pneumonia since November 23, and has tested positive for H5N1,
the Xinhua report said.

Maria Cheng, a WHO spokeswoman in Geneva, said China had
informed the WHO of the case. The girl had been exposed to
infected poultry a few weeks before falling ill, Cheng said.

The girl is in critical condition but all the people who
have been in close contact with her remain healthy, she added.

The central and regional governments have sent disease
control teams into Ziyuan county where the sick girl lives,
Xinhua reported.

Two women from China’s eastern Anhui province died of bird
flu last month. Both were involved in poultry farming.

Another confirmed victim, a nine-year-old boy, lives in

southern Hunan province which borders Guangxi. The boy has
recovered from the illness.

There have been more than 30 outbreaks of bird flu in
flocks across China this year and Beijing has promised
resources and openness in the fight against the virus.

It has culled 20 million birds and announced plans to
vaccinate billions. But Health Minister Gao Qiang has admitted
that local doctors may be unable to detect H5N1.

LIMITED FACILITIES

Hitoshi Oshitani, the WHO’s communicable disease expert in
Asia, told Reuters that improved surveillance of birds was
needed to curb the spread of the virus in Asia.

Laboratory facilities were limited in many countries,
especially Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia and China where
humans live in close contact with domestic and wild fowl, he
told Reuters during a visit to Singapore.

“The big, big challenge is to expand the surveillance
network in the rural areas,” Oshitani said. “We have to provide
some training and equipment and build new facilities to improve
the testing capacities.”

The H5N1 virus has reached eastern Europe and Kuwait,
probably spread by migratory birds.

There is a risk that the virus, which has been killing
birds in the Crimean peninsula, could spread to other parts of
the country, a Ukrainian minister said on Tuesday.

“Danger exists for other regions,” Emergency Minister
Viktor Baloga told parliament during a debate on endorsing a
state of emergency imposed by President Viktor Yushchenko in
five villages in Crimea. More than 2,500 birds died at the
weekend.

Authorities have sent samples of bird tissues to European
laboratories to determine whether the strain is H5N1 — which
has been detected in birds in neighboring Romania and Russia.

(Additional reporting by Olena Horodetska in Kiev, Mia
Shanley in Singapore and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva)