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China reports eight cases of mutated swine flu
Beijing (AFP) Nov 26, 2009 China has discovered eight people with mutated versions of swine flu but drugs are still effective against the new strains, a senior health official told the official Xinhua news agency. Shu Yuelong, director of the Chinese National Influenza Centre, said the first mutated strain of the (A)H1N1 virus was detected in June in a case imported from Britain and a similar strain was detected three months later in the eastern province of Zhejiang. "Mutations are almost inevitable in influenza viruses," Shu told Xinhua Wednesday. The mutation detected recently was an isolated case and the cases were not connected, Shu said. Scientists fear that mutations in flu viruses could cause more virulent and deadly pandemic flu. "This kind of mutant virus has been found in patients with slight and heavy symptoms as well as those who have recovered. The virus has not widely spread so far," Yu Hongjie, an expert from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told Xinhua. The World Health Organisation said Friday that a mutation had been found in samples of the swine flu virus taken following the first two deaths from the pandemic in Norway. It said a similar mutation had been observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the United States, as early as April. However, it stressed that the mutation did not appear to cause a more contagious or more dangerous form of A(H1N1) influenza and that some similar cases observed elsewhere had been mild. Hong Kong's health department has reported one case of the Norwegian mutation, in a young boy. China has reported 53 deaths out of nearly 70,000 confirmed swine flu cases but last week ordered more accurate reporting of fatalities after a medical expert said deaths were being deliberately underplayed. At least 6,770 people have died from swine flu out of more than half a million cases reported since the virus was first uncovered in Mexico and the United States in April, according to WHO figures. The WHO estimates that some 250,000 to 500,000 people die every year from standard seasonal variants of swine flu. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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UN AIDS chief in China to push for stronger civil societyShanghai (AFP) Nov 25, 2009 The UN AIDS chief said 50 million people are at risk from the disease in China and the government must do more to reach out to civil society and work with vulnerable groups such as homosexuals. China has 319,877 confirmed HIV cases but 740,000 are estimated to be infected, Michel Sidibe told AFP in an interview late Tuesday, citing figures compiled by UNAIDS, the World Health Organisation ... read more |
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