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PRC confirms three new outbreaks of bird flu in northeast

Authorities quarantined 116 people after a province in northeastern China suffered its second and third bird flu outbreaks there in less than three weeks, despite a massive campaign to contain the virus, the government said yesterday.

The news reinforced worries that fake bird flu vaccines for poultry were threatening public health after officials reported that an unapproved product was sold in Liaoning Province, site of the three most recently reported outbreaks.

"This is something we find to be a very unwelcome development. Quite clearly, there's a major problem in Liaoning, and it seems from what the Chinese are saying this has to do with using shoddy, inferior or maybe fake vaccines for poultry," said Peter Cordingley, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman.

His comments were broadcast by Hong Kong's Cable TV.

"And what we have now, almost certainly we think, is sick chickens who are showing no symptoms, and that is very, very bad. They are silent carriers of the virus," Cordingley said.

Also yesterday, the WHO said it was sending experts to southern China next week to help investigate whether bird flu killed a 12-year-old girl who died in a town that suffered an outbreak.

VIRULENT

In the northeast, the latest outbreaks of the virulent H5N1 virus in the cities of Jinzhou and Fuxin in Liaoning began on Sunday and killed 1,100 chickens on family farms, the Agriculture Ministry said.

It identified the source of infection as "wild animals," presumably migratory birds.

The news came a day after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), while inspecting Liaoning's flu prevention work, warned that the country faces a serious threat from bird flu, since the disease is still not under control despite massive nationwide efforts to stop its spread.

Wen's visit, and the public expressions of concern were welcomed as a sign of Beijing's commitment to combating the disease.

"We have to say from the WHO's point of view, the political response from China was first class. Very senior members of the government were in Liaoning immediately," said Cordingley, who was attending an AIDS conference in the southwestern city of Kunming.

"They've put a lot of money into this. We're very happy with the response," he said.

NO HUMAN CASES

China hasn't reported any confirmed human cases of H5N1, which has killed at least 63 people elsewhere in Asia.

But health officials say cases are inevitable if China can't stop repeated outbreaks in poultry, and the government has ordered increasingly strict preventive measures.

Bird flu outbreaks have been reported in the past month among fowl in Inner Mongolia, eastern Anhui Province and central Hunan Province.

Agricultural officials in Hunan denied reports yesterday by Hong Kong newspapers that the H5N1 virus was confirmed there in pigs, which can catch both bird flu and human influenza.

Experts fear that the virus could mutate if it infects pigs that are also carrying human flu virus.
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