The Ministry of Health announced at a bird flu prevention event in Beijing's Tongzhou District yesterday that it was starting to distribute 300,000 guidebooks on the prevention and control of bird flu among humans to selected rural areas.

Another 600,000 sets of pictorial booklets are being distributed jointly by the ministry and China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) along with the guidebooks.

The materials are directed at farmers, explaining in simple words what bird flu is, how it spreads and what symptoms to look for in people, and the ministry's information office said they were intended to help raise their awareness and ability to protect themselves against the disease.

Vice Health Minister Jiang Zuojun was at Monday's ceremony and presented some of the materials to health department officials and primary and high school students. 

He said early detection, reporting, quarantine and treatment are crucial to curbing epidemics in rural regions, adding that the ministry would be sending out additional materials in future.
 
The same day, an official from northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the part of the country most hit by outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza among birds, told China Daily that infections there have been brought under control in all affected areas.

"All infections have been capped within outbreak sites and have not spread further," said Xing Qinghua, a spokesperson for the regional animal husbandry department. "In line with statutes, experts have been dispatched to check whether it is time to lift some quarantines."

The Ministry of Agriculture said last night that the quarantine in Xinjiang's Zepu County has already been lifted.

"We are now engaged in a campaign to vaccinate all kinds of poultry in the region," said Xing, and 80 percent of poultry have already been given "effective" doses.

All vaccines in use were produced by state-designated companies and provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, with a record made for each inoculated bird, he added.

China has reported 30 bird flu outbreaks in wild birds and poultry this year and confirmed three human infections, including two fatalities.

The government has vowed to invest hugely in the prevention and control of the disease and strengthened surveillance for human cases, especially in its vast rural areas.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily December 6, 2005)