China Warns Of Bird Flu Risk Over Lunar New Year

Ben Blanchard, PlanetArk 20 Jan 09;

BEIJING - China has warned of the risk of further human cases of bird flu in the runup to the Lunar New Year holiday after reporting two new cases over weekend.

After not reporting a single human infection in almost a year, China has now confirmed three cases of the H5N1 virus in less than two weeks. "As the Spring Festival approaches, there are frequent movements of poultry products and the risk rises of virus outbreaks and transmission," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on its website (www.agri.gov.cn).

The Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year holiday, starts next Monday, accompanied by a mass movement of people back to their home provinces for lavish celebratory meals.

China said over the weekend that a woman in the eastern part of the country had died and a two-year-old girl was critically ill in the north after becoming infected with bird flu.

State television said on Monday that the girl was in stable condition in hospital though was not yet out of danger. But it added that nobody else she had been in contact with had shown signs of illness.

The latest infections bring China's total to 33 human bird flu cases. At least 22 people have died.

The ministry said there had been no reported outbreaks of bird flu among poultry in the two provinces where the two-year-old patient had lived, and was sending out teams of experts to probe how the virus could have spread.

"The ministry has already asked Shanxi and Hunan provinces to ... strengthen their bird flu prevention work," it said.

Experts have said new case are not unexpected as the virus is more active during the cooler months between October and March, but have also pointed to holes in surveillance of the virus in poultry in China.

The H5N1 virus remains largely a disease among birds but experts fear it could change into a form that is easily transmitted among humans and spark an influenza pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide.

With the world's biggest poultry population and hundreds of millions of backyard birds, China is seen as critical in the fight to contain bird flu.

Since the H5N1 virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003, it has infected 391 people, killing 247 of them, according to WHO figures released in mid-December. (Editing by Nick Macfie)