China is now in process of sharing more human avian flu virus
samples with the World Health organization, a senior Chinese health
official said in Beijing on Tuesday.
China will provide four samples of human bird flu virus to WHO,
which will be the second time that China has offered the human
virus isolation, according to Wang Yu, director of the Chinese
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"The handover is still in process," Wang said on the sidelines
of an ongoing health conference in Beijing.
China forwarded two bird flu virus samples along with relevant
virus information to WHO last December.
Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO western Pacific regional director said
earlier that it is a major contribution made by China to the global
fight against the epidemic to share avian flu virus samples and
information with the WHO.
Wang said that current lab tests of the human cases in China
show that there have not been mutations in the H5N1 strains of
avian flu virus.
But, he stressed, the recent human cases in Guangzhou and
Shanghai have posed a bigger challenge for China, because it was
believed that all the previous cases in rural China occurred due to
low level of health conditions and small hospitals there.
Wang said that the two cases show that even in big cities with
better health conditions and easier access to hospitals, cases
still occur.
"Although there's no evidence that the two patients had clear
exposure to dead poultry, it doesn't mean there's no virus in
poultry in the city environment," said Wenqing Zhang, with the
WHO's global influenza program.
She said that national pandemic preparedness is key to reduce
death and social and economic disruption for a possible bird flu
pandemic, although the severity and timing is unknown.
Up till now, China has reported 16 human cases and 11 deaths
from the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2006)