Xianghai National Nature Reserve, a major habitat of migratory birds in northeast China's Jilin Province, has closed off all of its scenic spots to protect tourists from avian-borne diseases.

"It's necessary to close the nature reserve in order to reduce contact between human and birds," Bao Jun, deputy director of Xianghai National Nature Reserve Administration, told Xinhua in a telephone interview on Saturday.

Jilin adjacent to bird flu-hit Liaoning Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has strengthened inspection and quarantine to keep the disease out of the province.

The wetland reserve of Xianghai, the Momoge Nature Reserve in the province and Zhalong Nature Reserve in Jilin's neighboring Heilongjiang Province are the three major protection bases for cranes.

Xianghai, the home of 253 kinds of rare birds including some 60 red-crowned cranes, is on the flight route of migratory birds, which increases the province's risk of bird flu outbreak.

"Groups of migratory birds have been flying south over the wetland these days," said Bao, noting that the reserve administration has taken measures to strengthen surveillance of the birds.

The birds living in the reserve have been injected anti-bird flu vaccines, said Bao, adding that 10 observation stations and a 60-person surveillance team have been set up, carrying out round-the-clock watch on the birds.

"The migration of birds will last for another couple of days," Bao said, "The risk of bird flu will decrease after the end of migratory season."

And a nine-year-old boy surnamed He, who had been formerly diagnosed of "pneumonia of unknown cause," was discharged from hospital on Saturday after being completely cured.

After 25 days of treatment and quarantine in the Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital, the boy whose sister died of severe pneumonia on Oct. 17 was discharged from hospital in central China's Hunan Province.

The boy and his sister aged 12 showed pneumonia symptoms after eating chickens, which died after the highly pathogenic bird flu of H5N1 hit the village of Wantang in Xiangtan County.

Experts have diagnosed the boy's illness as "pneumonia of unknown cause", but did not rule out a possible human case of H5N1 bird flu.

The boy was in bad condition with pathological changes detected on his lungs when he was brought to hospital. His condition began to recover three days later, and a group consultation by doctors on Nov. 7 decided to stop using hormonal medicine for his disease.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is carrying out further tests on the boy's blood sample, according to doctors with the local hospital.

A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) will come to Hunan next week to work with Chinese doctors to probe three possible human cases of bird flu in China. The boy will be one of the research objects.

The experts will conduct a retrospective investigation of the occurrence and treatment of the three pneumonia cases with unknown causes.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2005)