Another death in China from bird flu

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China bird flu fatality

 

Nine-year-old Chinese girl dies of bird flu

 

Beijing - China said on Wednesday a nine-year-old girl had become its 10th human bird flu fatality, just days after the death of a man in the south of the country raised fears of the virus spreading to Hong Kong.

 

The girl, from the eastern province of Zhejiang, died on Monday, nearly a month after the first signs that she was ill, the provincial centre for disease control said.

 

"Her condition worsened and after all efforts at treating her failed, she died Monday evening," the centre said in a statement on its website.

 

The girl, from Anji county near the border with Anhui province, showed signs of fever and pneumonia on February 10, according to earlier state press reports.

 

The Zhejiang Daily reported on Wednesday that no bird flu epidemic had been detected among animals in the province.

 

Earlier reports suggested the girl fell ill after having contact with sick chickens while visiting relatives who lived in Anhui about 50 kilometres from her home.

 

China has reported 15 confirmed human cases of bird flu, resulting in 10 deaths.

 

One of the other five, a 26-year-old female farmer who was reported last month to have fallen ill, remained in a critical condition, the World Health Organisation's spokesperson in Beijing, Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, said.

 

Hong Kong remained on high alert following the announcement on Sunday of China's ninth bird flu fatality, which struck closer to home than any of the previous mainland deaths.

 

The 32-year-old man surnamed Lao died of bird flu last Thursday in southern China's Guangdong province, which borders the global economic hub.

 

The Guangdong provincial governor told reporters on Tuesday the death was just an isolated incident, but people in Hong Kong were on Wednesday continuing to take no chances.

 

With thousands crossing between mainland China and Hong Kong every day, health officials had stepped up temperature screenings at all immigration checkpoints and were issuing educational leaflets to travellers.

 

The Guangdong death also prompted Hong Kong to impose a ban on imports of live poultry, day-old chicks and pet birds from Guangdong for three weeks.

 

Guangdong province provides half of Hong Kong's live poultry, or 30 000 birds a day.

 

Hong Kong was the scene of the world's first reported major bird flu outbreak among humans in 1997, when six people died. The government slaughtered all the city's 1,5 million poultry to contain the outbreak.

 

Bird flu has killed at least 95 people worldwide since 2003, mostly in Asia, although the virus has spread through Europe and into Africa in recent months.

 

World Health Organisation director General Lee Jong Wook warned again this week of a global pandemic if the virus mutated into a form that was easily spread among humans.

 

Currently, humans are believed to be contracting the virus from poultry.

 

 

 

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-03-08 09:02