Bird flu poultry outbreaks in China possible: UN

EPIDEMICS

Three-year-old youngest in China to survive bird flu: govt
A three-year-old girl in northern China has become the youngest person in the nation to survive bird flu, authorities said Wednesday, after five other people died of the disease this year. The girl, surnamed Peng, fell ill on January 7 after having been exposed to live poultry in markets and was diagnosed with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus nine days later, a statement on the health ministry's website said. Peng, whose mother died in early January of severe pneumonia, was hospitalised in a critical condition in Shanxi province, but recovered and was discharged on Tuesday, the statement from the Shanxi health department said. "Peng is the first patient to have recovered and been discharged among China's eight recent reported cases of bird flu, and she is currently the youngest patient in the country to have been successfully treated," it said. Her father, Peng Zhiwen, was overjoyed, the official Xinhua news agency reported. "I am so excited, but above all, I should thank all people who have shown care for my daughter," he was quoted as saying, as photos showed him smiling and holding her in his arms. Pneumonia is a common symptom of bird flu but authorities previously said there was not enough evidence to say whether the girl's mother also died of bird flu. China has reported eight cases of human bird flu infections this year, and five people have died, compared with just three in all of 2008. China is considered one of the nations most at risk from bird flu epidemics because of a large poultry population that lives in close proximity to humans. So far, 25 people have died from avian influenza in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to World Health Organisation figures.

by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Feb 4, 2009
China may have experienced outbreaks of bird flu among poultry recently, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said Wednesday, even though the government had yet to report any cases this year.

The FAO's comments come after eight people contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus in China this year -- five of whom died -- compared with just three cases in all of 2008.

"There must have been some virus circulation or possibly some outbreaks lately," Vincent Martin, senior technical adviser on bird flu for the FAO in China, told AFP.

But he said the FAO had received no reports of bird flu cases in poultry from the agriculture ministry since December, when an outbreak occurred in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

"There must be some suspicions of the disease reported to the Ministry of Agriculture, and some of those suspicions might have come up positive," he said.

"We are waiting to receive some reports describing the overall epidemiological situation and the results of investigations."

The number of cases in China this year has aroused some public concern, although the World Health Organisation has said the overall situation is "within expectations at this time of the year."

Cold weather encourages the spread of the virus, and the Lunar New Year holiday -- a risky period when hundreds of millions of people move across the nation to see relatives and eat meals that include poultry -- has just ended.

But Martin said the pattern this year was unusual.

"There are more cases than last year, including in places where the disease was not reported before like in Jiangsu province (poultry outbreak) or Shandong province (human case)," he said.

Lo Wing-lok, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong, said that if no poultry outbreak in China was accompanying the current human cases, the latter could have been triggered by a mutation in the H5N1 virus.

"Maybe the virus has been changing, so that it becomes a more easily transmittable virus between bird and man," he said.

Experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to kill millions in a pandemic, but there has been no evidence yet of this happening.

So far, 25 people have died from avian influenza in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to World Health Organisation figures.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us Digg Reddit

YahooMyWeb Google Facebook

Related Links
Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

EPIDEMICS

Unmasked And Vulnerable

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Feb 04, 2009
Donning a face mask is an easy way to boost protection from severe respiratory illnesses such as influenza and SARS, new research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has found, but convincing a reluctant public and health workers is proving a struggle.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT Poland ending Chad, Lebanon, Golan missions: defence minister Snow may be billion-pound loss for British economy: experts Myanmar migrants say cast adrift by Thais: Indonesia navy SnowMan Software Developed At UB Helps Keep Snow Drifts Off The Road	CLIMATE SCIENCE EU envoy says China won't get out of climate crunch for free 'Wicked' warming dries Australian rivers to historic lows: report US lawmaker vows climate change draft in 2009 Some Of Earth's Climate Troubles Should Face Burial At Sea
EARTH OBSERVATION NOAA-N Prime Launch To Light Up Early Morning Sky New Research Aircraft HALO Lands At Home Airport NOAA-N Completes Flight Readiness Review NASA Tracks A Green Planet Called Earth	ENERGY TECH Covanta Energy To Build Energy-From-Waste Plant In Wales Worlds Most Advanced New Steam Turbine For Combined-Cycle Power Plants ADA-ES Renames Its Activated Carbon Joint Venture US And China In Race To The Top Of Global Wind Industry
EPIDEMICS Bird flu poultry outbreaks in China possible: UN Deadly H5N1 avian flu found in Hong Kong birds Surgical Implants Coated With One Of Nature's Antibiotics Unmasked And Vulnerable	FLORA AND FAUNA Emperor Penguins March Toward Extinction Improved Method For Comparing Genomes As Well As Written Text Mountain Caribou's Ancient Ancestry Revealed Mammals That Hibernate Or Burrow Less Likely To Go Extinct
FROTH AND BUBBLE China blames pollution as birth defects rise: state media Over 4,000 industrial plants without proper permits: EU Study Links Water Pollution With Declining Male Fertility Blame game as Mexico City trash piles up	ABOUT US Survival shaped face of human ancestors How Vision Sends Its Message To The Brain Learning Science Facts Doesn't Boost Science Reasoning Stress Disrupts Human Thinking But The Brain Can Bounce Back

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement