China turns to WHO after latest bout of suspected bird flu

CHINA yesterday said it had asked for outside help to test three possible cases of bird flu in humans, and reported that its latest outbreak among poultry lies along a migration route for wild birds.

China said it had asked the World Health Organisation (WHO) to help it determine if the death of a 12-year-old girl last month was caused by bird flu.

There have been four outbreaks of the deadly and virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu among poultry in China in the past three weeks, but Beijing has not confirmed any human deaths from the virus, which has killed at least 62 people across south-east Asia.

But earlier yesterday, Xinhua reported that Chinese experts “cannot rule out the possibility of human transmission of H5N1 bird flu” in the cases of three people in Wantang in central Hunan province who came down with pneumonia last month following a bird flu outbreak among local poultry.

One of them, the 12-year-old girl, died. Her nine-year-old brother and a 36-year-old middle school teacher recovered. Chinese officials initially said the girl and her brother tested negative for the bird flu virus.

Since late 2003, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia and jumped from birds to humans. Most of the human deaths have been linked to close contact with infected birds. But experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among humans and possibly spark a worldwide flu pandemic.

China, which was heavily criticised during the 2003 outbreak of SARS for initially covering up the illness, has pledged to be more open about reporting on bird flu.

Meanwhile in Liaoning province’s Badaohao village, close to the border with North Korea, 1,700 officials and 100 police finished culling about 370,000 birds after bird flu killed 8,940 chickens there.

Xinhua said that Badaohao lies along a migration route used by migratory birds heading from east Asia to Australia, contributing to fears that wild birds could spread the disease.

In North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency said officials and workers across the country “have turned out as one in the prevention of bird flu.”

Leader Kim Jong Il “recently spoke of bird flu several times and took concrete measures,” KCNA said.

Ministries are studying the situation abroad and have intensified quarantine, KCNA said. Chicken farms are also preventing visitors from entering and are sterilising coops and vehicles.