Three cases of human bird flu infection confirmed in China
Two more cases of human bird flu infection have been confirmed by China this week. This raises the total number of cases to three as it follows the confirmation of an elderly man in Hong Kong being diagnosed with the disease earlier this week.
The confirmation of the human cases of the deadly virus is fueling fears of an outbreak at a time when other Asian nations are battling to control the spread of the disease.
The poultry industries of two nearby countries, South Korea and Japan, are bracing for heavy financial losses as health officials scramble to contain outbreaks of different strains of bird flu. The cases come as both countries have ordered the killing of tens of millions of birds in the past month.
A man diagnosed with the H7N9 strain of bird flu is being treated in Shanghai, after traveling from the neighboring province of Jiangsu, according to the website of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.Shanghai is China’s most populated city with more than 24 million residents.
The local government in Jiangsu is looking into the origin of the infection, the provincial health authority said.
It was also reported that local authorities in Xiamen, a city in China’s eastern Fujian province, ordered a halt to poultry sales in the Siming district after a 44-year-old man was diagnosed with H7N9 flu.The patient is being treated in hospital and is in stable condition, Xinhua said, citing Xiamen’s diseases prevention and control center. The city has a population of about 3.5 million.
Bird flu is most likely to strike in winter and spring and farmers have in recent years increased cleaning regimes, animal detention techniques and built roofs to cover hen pens, among other steps, to prevent the disease.
In the past two months, more than 110,000 birds have been killed following bird flu outbreaks, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. They did not lead to human infection.
Each year, China slaughters 11 billion birds for consumption.Authorities have not culled any birds as a result of this week’s episodes, which appear to be isolated.Still, farmers worry the virus could spread, hurting demand for chicken as the Chinese prepare for peak demand during Lunar New Year celebrations at the end of January.
Amid recent outbreaks elsewhere, the Chinese are feeding their flocks more vitamins and vaccines and ramping up hen house sterilization to protect their birds.
Authorities also said they would ban imports of poultry from countries where there are outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu. It already prohibits imports from more than 60 nations, including Japan and South Korea.
The last major bird flu outbreak in mainland China in 2013 killed 36 people and caused about US$6.5 billion in losses to the agriculture sector.
Delegations from Japan, South Korea and China gathered in Beijing last week for a symposium on preventing and controlling bird flu and other diseases in East Asia, according to China’s agriculture ministry website.
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