China has confirmed another human case of bird flu, the Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
The ministry of health had confirmed the case in the eastern province of Anhui, it said.
It is the third confirmed human case of bird flu reported in China, and came soon after another suspected case was found not to have contracted the virus.
PHOTO: AP
Blood tests on a schoolteacher who fell ill in an area that suffered a bird flu outbreak show he didn't have H5N1, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said.
"Based on an extensive range of blood tests, he's been excluded as a case of H5N1," said Julie Hall, an infectious diseases specialist for the WHO's Beijing office.
The 36-year-old teacher had fallen ill after chopping raw chicken, according to the government.
Meanwhile, Shanghai, will ban sales of canaries, parakeets and other pet birds as part of increasingly drastic measures aimed at preventing a wide-scale bird flu outbreak, a city official and government media said yesterday.
The agriculture, forestry, veterinary and health bureaus were coordinating on setting an exact date for the ban to go into effect, an official from the market supervision department of Shanghai's bureau of industry and commerce said.
"We do have this plan as part of the anti-bird flu campaign, but we still need to hold talks," said the official.
However, the official and local newspapers said the plan would most likely take effect from the beginning of next month.
The step follows China's announcement this week of its 20th outbreak of the H5N1 virus among poultry since late last month, along with one human fatality and one suspected death. With a human population of 20 million, Shanghai has yet to report any outbreaks, despite near-daily news of fresh cases from around the country.
Millions of chickens, geese and ducks have been destroyed around China to contain those outbreaks, and authorities are rushing to vaccinate billions of poultry against the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus.
Shanghai will still permit sales of live poultry, although markets selling such birds must close for one day each week to be disinfected.
According to newspapers, the ban on pet sales had been spurred by troubles identifying the place of origin of such birds, some of which may have come from areas where bird flu has already led to contamination, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported.
Pet birds are also more difficult to vaccinate because of their small size and the unsanitary conditions in which they are stored, transported and sold, the paper said.
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