Mounting bird flu fears in China
Fears that several people in China and Thailand had been infected with bird flu appear to have been proved groundless, but the region’s anxiety mounted as officials warned of more human infections unless the spread of the disease was curbed.
“The situation right now is extremely grave,” said Jia Youling, China’s chief veterinary officer. He warned that it was only a matter of time before China recorded its first human infection after reporting three outbreaks among its vast poultry flocks over the past two weeks.
Chinese authorities said tests confirmed that a 12-year-old girl who died in a village where an outbreak among poultry occurred didn’t have the virus.
Chen Xianyi, vice director of the Health Ministry’s department of disease control, said tests showed she died of pneumonia.
And in France, health authorities said late yesterday that three French tourists suspected of contracting the disease at a bird park in Thailand tested negative for the H5N1 strain of the virus.
The virus has killed at least 62 people across Asia since late 2003.
Most of the people infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu have had contact with sick birds. Health experts fear that if it mutates into a form that is easily transmissible between people, it could spark a pandemic, possibly killing millions.
In China, officials went on television to try to reassure the public, saying they were capable of stopping the virus. They said human cases would be quarantined and warned that anyone who tries to hide and outbreak would be punished.
The country has reported three outbreaks over the past two weeks that have killed hundreds of chickens and ducks, but the government says there have been no human infections.
“Prevention and control of bird outbreaks is of chief importance. If we fail to do that well, then sooner or later there will be transmission from birds to humans,” Jia, the veterinary official, said at a news conference shown live on national television.
Jia also warned that the huge numbers of wild birds migrating through China in coming weeks made it unrealistic to believe that the country could “absolutely eliminate” the virus.
Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono warned that the virus could spread quickly through the densely populated archipelago since wild pigeons and other birds already were infected.
“The condition (of bird flu) is critical because it has been found to have infected pigeons,” he said. “We can all imagine how long and how far pigeons can fly.”
The first infected pigeon was detected last week in Bekasi, just outside the capital of Jakarta.
Bird flu has killed four people and sickened three others in Indonesia so far this year.
Indonesian authorities were waiting for test results on chickens that died since late last week in Padang Sambian, a village on the outskirts of Bali’s capital, Denpasar.
In Australia, Health Minister Tony Abbott said the island continent of 20 million people would shut itself off from the rest of the world if a human flu pandemic breaks out.
“The best way of ensuring that you don’t get infected with something like this, in the absence of an effective vaccine, would be isolation,” Abbott told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
“Obviously there would be a place in any isolation strategy for some kind of restrictions on movement and gathering,” he said.
Australia warned its people to avoid travel to 15 Asian countries at risk for possible outbreaks.
