No new cases of avian influenza amongst birds in Heishan County
of northeast China's Liaoning Province have been reported in seven
consecutive days, signaling that the outbreak there has come under
effective control, the local government said today.
Dong Degang, deputy director of the provincial health
department, said no human cases have been reported in the county
and neighboring areas despite thorough inspections and monitoring
of nearly 50,000 people who had had close contact with sick
poultry.
In addition, one female chicken farmer who had suffered serious
pneumonia and fever but tested negative for the virus, will be
discharged from hospital after seven to ten days' observation, said
Dong.
The epidemic broke out on October 26 when chickens were found
dead on family farms in a village in Badaohao town. It later spread
to five other towns in the county and several towns in neighboring
Beining City.
The National Avian Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus
involved was the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu on November 3.
Affected areas were immediately quarantined, with 30 checking
stations and disinfection points set up around them. More than
4,000 armed police and professionals have been mobilized to carry
out compulsory poultry slaughtering.
A total of 369,900 family-owned birds within a radius of three
kilometers have been culled and more than 300 million vaccinated,
and the provincial government had allocated over 191 million yuan
(US$23.55 million) as compensation for local farmers by
Tuesday.
The local government also sent more than 300 medical workers to
the areas to offer free medical checks and vaccinations for
farmers.
Heishan is on the East Asia-Australia migratory bird route, and
over 20 magpies and other wild birds were also found dead there.
Zhou Liyuan, a provincial government spokesperson, said experts
believed the outbreak came from migratory birds, which stayed
longer than usual in the area due to high temperatures.
Liaoning, which has confirmed three other outbreaks this month,
is still on high alert, and the Ministry of Health yesterday
confirmed two human cases of H5N1 and one other suspected.
The two cases confirmed were a nine-year-old boy in Xiangtan
County of Hunan Province, central China, who has since recovered
and a 24-year-old woman farmer in Zongyang County of Anhui Province
in the east who died on November 10.
The boy's 12-year-old sister, who had similar symptoms and died
on October 17, was suspected to have been infected.
A team of WHO experts who were visiting Hunan with ministry
officials this week also met a 36-year-old schoolteacher there
yesterday who may also be infected.
They planned to return to Beijing today.
(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2005)