Xianghai National Nature Reserve, a major habitat of migratory
birds in northeast China's Jilin Province, has closed off all of
its scenic spots to protect tourists from avian-borne diseases.
"It's necessary to close the nature reserve in order to reduce
contact between human and birds," Bao Jun, deputy director of
Xianghai National Nature Reserve Administration, told Xinhua in a
telephone interview on Saturday.
Jilin adjacent to bird flu-hit Liaoning Province and Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region has strengthened inspection and
quarantine to keep the disease out of the province.
The wetland reserve of Xianghai, the Momoge Nature Reserve in
the province and Zhalong Nature Reserve in Jilin's neighboring
Heilongjiang Province are the three major protection bases for
cranes.
Xianghai, the home of 253 kinds of rare birds including some 60
red-crowned cranes, is on the flight route of migratory birds,
which increases the province's risk of bird flu outbreak.
"Groups of migratory birds have been flying south over the
wetland these days," said Bao, noting that the reserve
administration has taken measures to strengthen surveillance of the
birds.
The birds living in the reserve have been injected anti-bird flu
vaccines, said Bao, adding that 10 observation stations and a
60-person surveillance team have been set up, carrying out
round-the-clock watch on the birds.
"The migration of birds will last for another couple of days,"
Bao said, "The risk of bird flu will decrease after the end of
migratory season."
And?a nine-year-old boy surnamed He, who had been formerly
diagnosed of "pneumonia of unknown cause," was discharged from
hospital on Saturday after being completely cured.
After 25 days of treatment and quarantine in the Hunan
Provincial Children's Hospital, the boy whose sister died of severe
pneumonia on Oct. 17 was discharged from hospital in central
China's Hunan Province.
The boy and his sister aged 12 showed pneumonia symptoms after
eating chickens, which died after the highly pathogenic bird flu of
H5N1 hit the village of Wantang in Xiangtan County.
Experts have diagnosed the boy's illness as "pneumonia of
unknown cause", but did not rule out a possible human case of H5N1
bird flu.
The boy was in bad condition with pathological changes detected
on his lungs when he was brought to hospital. His condition began
to recover three days later, and a group consultation by doctors on
Nov. 7 decided to stop using hormonal medicine for his disease.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is
carrying out further tests on the boy's blood sample, according to
doctors with the local hospital.
A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) will
come to Hunan next week to work with Chinese doctors to probe three
possible human cases of bird flu in China. The boy will be one of
the research objects.
The experts will conduct a retrospective investigation of the
occurrence and treatment of the three pneumonia cases with unknown
causes.
(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2005)
