As previously suspected bird flu cases in two central provinces were confirmed and new suspected cases reported in three other Chinese regions Friday, an increasing number of Chinese localities are taking measures to handle the deadly disease.

President Hu Jintao, on state visit to Egypt, said on Saturday that people's health should be the top priority in the current efforts to prevent and control bird flu, now hitting several provinces in central and south China.?

He said: "We have full confidence in tackling the problem and in preventing the disease from spreading to other areas. We must do our utmost to do a good prevention work and prevent human infection."

Up to early Saturday morning, 1,306,500 poultry within 3 kilometres of the confirmed bird flu-hit area in Wugang City of central China's Hunan Province have been killed and no new suspected or confirmed cases reported in the affected region.

Local quarantine departments also destroyed 22,000 pieces of poultry eggs and sealed up 12.1 tons of poultry eggs. The above poultry and poultry-related products were disinfected and buried deeply underground.

At present, quarantine workers are vaccinating poultry within 5 kilometres of the affected farm and disinfecting the nearby areas including rivers.

In response to the confirmed bird flu cases in Wuxue City of central China's Hubei Province, the provincial capital city of Wuhan has started a comprehensive program to safeguard the city against the highly infectious H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Over 7.3 million poultry in Wuhan have been vaccinated and local poultry farms, poultry marketplaces, supermarkets and slaughterhouses disinfected. The local government also banned purchase of poultry and related products from affected regions and demanded careful recording of poultry deals such as commodity sources and quarantine certificates.

Inspection results of local industry and commerce departments show no suspected bird flu cases have been found in Wuhan and poultry deals remain normal.

China's well-known tourist province of Hainan also launched a high-profile campaign against any possible bird flu outbreaks along its long coastline.

Hainan's pre-emptive measures against bird flu include sending two work teams to neighboring Hai'an City of south China's Guangdong Province and Beihai City of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to prevent bird flu virus from entering the island province.

In fact, not only regions, where confirmed and suspected bird flu cases have been reported, and nearby localities are highly alert against the disease, regions far away from the bird flu-hit localities also take precautions against the animal-sourced disease.

Recently, Xi'an City of northwest China's Shaanxi Province tightened control and inspection on cargoes, transport vehicles and mails from bird flu-stricken countries and regions.

Xi'an customs also launched a series of new rules and work procedures to protect customs staff from catching the deadly disease at work, according to local sources.

So far, confirmed bird flu cases were found in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and central China's Hunan and Hubei provinces. Shanghai, east China's Anhui Province and south China's Guangdong Province reported suspected outbreaks.

In the Chinese mainland, the highly infectious H5N1 strain of bird flu can only be examined and confirmed by the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory, based in Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

All suspected bird flu-infected samples are sent to the laboratory for decisive diagnosis. The lab is responsible for reporting the final results to the Ministry of Agriculture, which is authorized to release the information to the public.

No other mainland-based institutions and departments are capable of diagnosing bird flu or authorized to release relevant information.

(China Daily February 1, 2004)