A farmer aged 37 of east China's Anhui Province has contracted the H5N1 strain
of bird flu. This is the first human case reported on the Chinese
mainland this winter.
The man, surnamed Li, developed symptoms of fever and pneumonia
last month and was discharged from hospital on Saturday in Tunxi,
Anhui, the Ministry of Health said yesterday.
Local health authorities said those who had close contact with
Li showed no abnormal symptoms and had been released from medical
observation. No bird flu cases were reported among animals in the
area but the local authorities are closely monitoring the
situation, the ministry said.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed
on Monday that Li tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain. The
next day the Anhui provincial health department reported the case
to the Ministry of Health. They've given details to the World
Health Organization.
Information has also been given to the health agencies in Hong
Kong, Macao, Taiwan and a number of other countries, said the
ministry.
The virus has killed 14 people on the Chinese mainland since
2003 and 21 contracted the virus before this latest case. The last
case was reported in Xinjiang in July 2006.
In Asia the virus killed a 14-year-old boy on the outskirts of
Jakarta. This is the country's first fatality in six weeks. The boy
died four days after being admitted to hospital with flu-like
symptoms.
Indonesia is the world's hardest-hit country with 58 bird flu
deaths. In Vietnam the virus has been confirmed in a fourth
Vietnamese province after tests on 70 ducks showed they had died
from H5N1, a government report said yesterday.
In Beijing a spokesman for the Ministry of Health told a regular
news conference yesterday that health authorities would continue to
strengthen monitoring cases of pneumonia and flu as "winter is the
season that bird flu cases will possibly occur."
Bird flu cases mostly have pneumonia symptoms but colds or
influenza would have obvious signs of upper respiratory tract
infection, said the spokesman. The discovery of the bird flu case
in Anhui proved China's monitoring was efficient and the current
influenza outbreak in Beijing had nothing to do with bird flu, he
said.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by flu this
month but it's expected that the numbers will drop soon. The
December-January period is when influenza cases hit a peak in North
China.
Tianjin municipality and Jilin, Heilongjiang, Gansu and Shaanxi
provinces have also witnessed high incidence of influenza.
(China Daily January 11, 2007)