China confirms human case of bird flu
BEIJING (AP) — China reported a new human case of bird flu on Thursday as Indonesia and the World Health Organization drew closer to resolving a dispute over virus samples that could be used to develop a commercial vaccine against the disease.
The human infection in China occurred in the coastal province of Fujian, where a 44-year-old farmer surnamed Li was diagnosed on Feb. 18 after he developed a fever and began coughing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
It was the mainland’s first human case of bird flu since Jan. 10, when the government said a 37-year-old farmer in Anhui province in eastern China had contracted bird flu but had recovered.
Xinhua said tests by the provincial disease control and prevention center showed Li had been infected with the H5N1 virus strain and that the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the result on Feb. 27.
The report did not say whether the farmer worked with poultry or whether infected birds were found, but said that she had “made contact with dead fowl.”
Joanna Brent, a spokeswoman for the WHO’s Beijing office, said 22 out of China’s 23 human cases — including the latest in Fujian — “have not been forewarned by a poultry outbreak,” a sign of weakness in its animal surveillance system. In Fujian itself, three human infections have been reported but no sickness in birds, she said.
“This suggests that strategies for monitoring H5N1 in poultry need further strengthening. An exclusive focus on outbreaks is no longer sufficient,” Brent said. “All countries need to implement surveillance strategies to monitor where the virus is circulating and how the virus is changing.”
Avian influenza story source: AP