The Ministry of Health confirmed another human case of H5N1
avian influenza in east China's Anhui Province on Wednesday, the
third reported in China, as the country's 25th outbreak amongst
birds this year was reported in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region.
The health ministry said a 35-year-old woman farmer named Xu in
Xiuning County developed fever and pneumonia-like symptoms on
November 11 after contact with sick and dead poultry. She died on
Tuesday.
Tests by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention had found
her to be H5N1 positive.
The ministry has reported the confirmation to the WHO, according
to the WHO's Beijing Office, and has informed Hong Kong, Macao and
other countries.
China's first two human cases were confirmed on November 16,
along with a further suspected fatal case.
They involved a nine-year-old boy who since recovered in
Xiangtan County of Hunan Province, central China, and a 24-year-old
woman farmer who died on November 10 in Zongyang County of Anhui
Province in the east.
The boy's 12-year-old sister, who had similar symptoms as her
brother and died on October 17, could not be confirmed as having
had bird flu because her remains were cremated before adequate
tests could be completed.
"There is no proof of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in
the world so far," Chen Xianyi, head of the contingency office of
the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua News Agency in an
interview.
The new outbreak in Xinjiang's Miquan County, confirmed by the
agriculture ministry last night, killed more than 2,000 chickens on
November 15. So far 84,000 poultry have been culled to curb the
spread of the disease.
Vice Minister of Agriculture Yin Chengjie said Monday that China
is facing a "severe" situation in fighting bird flu. The government
vowed last week to vaccinate all the country's 14 billion poultry
to fight the epidemic.
On Tuesday, the State Food and Drug Administration approved a
possible Chinese-developed human bird flu vaccine for clinical
tests, saying pre-clinical trials had found it to be safe and
effective.
(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2005)