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)