President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have stressed that
prevention and control work against bird flu should be conducted
effectively based on scientific knowledge and in line with the law,
following the confirmation of China's first bird flu cases on
Tuesday.
They asked local governments to maintain a high alert against
the deadly virus and strengthen monitoring of the H5N1 strain of
bird flu after the cases were confirmed in Dingdang Town, Long'an
County in south China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
If cases of bird flu are spotted, all the infected poultry must
be slaughtered and the affected areas must be sanitized to prevent
further spread, they stressed.
They said that local governments should keep the virus within
the polluted region and prevent it from spreading to humans to
ensure the safety of people.
Local governments across the country have made painstaking
efforts to carry out these measures in a coordinated manner to
prevent and control bird flu.
Besides stepping up efforts to prevent an outbreak in the
nation, China is ready to cooperate with other countries to address
the current crisis, Chinese Vice Minister of Agriculture Qi Jingfa
said in Bangkok yesterday.
"We are now closely watching the development of the disease,
studying on origin of the disease and banning export and import of
poultry products from all regions affected by the epidemic," said
Qi at an regional ministerial meeting on the current poultry
disease situation.
The Guangxi regional government has quarantined certain areas
and slaughtered a total of 140,000 poultry in three-kilometer
radius as early as January 23, when the duck suspected of being
affected was sent to the lab, he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture has made a national plan to prevent
the disease and briefed the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the
World Health Organization (WHO) of the situation, he added.
China informed the FAO and WHO of its bird flu epidemic on Tuesday,
the day the deadly virus was confirmed.
Soon afterwards, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of
Health held emergency meetings with FAO officer-in-charge in China
Robert Brown and WHO representative in China Henk Bekedam,
respectively, notifying them of the latest developments of the
epidemic in the country and the measures that had been taken.
After listening to the agriculture ministry's report on the
epidemic and the measures the Chinese government had taken in
accordance with the country's Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention,
Brown thanked the ministry for the timely reporting of the disease
and the measures, expressing confidence in China's capability in
preventing the epidemic from further spreading.
He said the FAO gave high attention to the development of bird
flu in Asia, including China, and stands ready to give China its
full support.
After listening to the health ministry's report, Bekedam said
China's timely notification demonstrates the Chinese government's
openness and transparency in treating the epidemic.
He said China's fight against SARS?last year has left the
international community with a deep impression, and he believed the
Chinese government would do even better now in dealing with the
bird flu.
Although the disease has not spread to humans, Bekedam said
efforts should be enhanced in containing its transmission from
poultry to humans. He pledged the willingness of the WHO to help
China in preventing and treating the disease and to further step up
the two sides' cooperation.
The ministries of agriculture and health thanked the two
international organizations for their support to the Chinese
government, and expressed hopes to further strengthen exchanges and
cooperation with relevant international organizations in preventing
and treating the bird flu.
Huang Shengde, owner of the duck farm which has been confirmed
to be hit by bird flu, is now under round-the-clock medical
observation. No infections in human beings have been found since
the lab confirmed the bird flu case in ducks at the farm.
Government officials have also conducted door-to-door
disinfections and asked people not to cultivate poultry in the next
30 days.
In Beijing, the slaughter of poultry in market places and
selling uninspected meat and poultry products were banned
yesterday, an emergency effort by the local government to safeguard
the capital from the bird flu virus.
Liu Jian, vice director of Beijing Municipal Industry and
Commerce Bureau, also announced tighter controls and inspection of
poultry products entering Beijing from other regions of the
country.
(China Daily January 29, 2004)