China issues bird flu alert

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ReutersA health worker culls poultry

China issued a bird flu alert after a woman died of the virus, the first such death in the country in almost a year, and closed poultry markets for disinfecting in a province surrounding Beijing.

The 19-year-old woman died of the H5N1 virus after gutting nine ducks, which experts say highlights the role and risks of waterfowl in the transmission of the virus to humans.

In Yanjiao in Hebei province, where the dead woman had bought the ducks, poultry markets were closed and the sale of live birds stopped as workers in masks and white coats sprayed disinfectant.

The World Health Organisation said the woman's death, China's 21st to date, appeared to be an isolated case.

"We are concerned by any case of human H5N1 infection, however, this single case, which appears to have occurred during the slaughtering and preparation of poultry, does not change our risk assessment," the WHO said in a statement.


"WHO expects the ministry will continue to keep it updated on this case, and is prepared to offer technical assistance if requested," it added, referring to the Health Ministry.

The virus is generally more active during the cooler months between October and March, although the new Chinese case points to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry.

Chinese Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qunan was quoted in state media as saying the government would step up monitoring.

"This year we must, on the basis of what we have done in the past, increase monitoring for the transmission of the highly pathogenic bird flu virus in humans," Mao said.

In Beijing, workers fanned out to inspect poultry markets and slaughterhouses in the capital city after the government issued a bird flu alert, the official Xinhua news agency said.

No signs of disease in birds

Lo Wing-lok, an infectious disease expert in Hong Kong, said the case highlighted the danger of ducks in the spread of H5N1. Many species of ducks are natural reservoirs of the virus and unlike chickens, they show no signs of disease.

"The nine ducks the woman purchased were probably carrying the virus and she was exposed. Duck innards have high concentration of the virus and cleaning nine of them is so risky," Lo told reporters.

Paul Chan, microbiologist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, said it was worrying that this case was not accompanied by the detection of the virus in poultry nearby.

"The source of this infection seems to be poultry or the market (where the girl bought the ducks). If that is true, we need to know why we missed the outbreak of the virus in poultry or in the market," Chan said.

"If there was an outbreak in the market, there should have been large numbers of poultry (chicken) deaths. If people in the markets and the government can't recognise this, then we have a serious problem on our hands," he added.

The H5N1 strain remains largely a disease among birds but experts fear it could change into a form that is easily transmitted among people and kill millions of people worldwide.

The last human H5N1 death in China was in February last year when a 44-year-old woman died in southern Guangdong province.

With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of farmers raising birds in their backyards, China is seen as crucial in the global fight against bird flu.

Since the H5N1 virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003, it has infected 391 people, killing 247 of them, according to WHO figures released in mid-December.

Vietnam's agriculture ministry has confirmed an outbreak of bird flu among poultry in the northern province of Thanh Hoa, where a girl was hospitalised with the deadly disease last week.

Thanh Hoa is the second province in two weeks to report an outbreak of the bird-borne illness among poultry, the other being Thai Nguyen, directly north of the capital.

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"If there was an outbreak in the market, there should have been large numbers of poultry (chicken) deaths. If people in the markets and the government can't recognise this, then we have a serious problem on our hands," he added.