A senior bird flu control official said in Hefei, Anhui
Province, Saturday that the bird flu virus which hit the
eastern province early July has not mutated and remained the same
as when it affected the country in the spring outbreak.
Wei Jianzhong, member of the experts panel of the provincial
bird flu control headquarters, said the laboratory test proved that
the virus was the H5N1 strain which is a stable type of the bird
flu virus
The province saw four sites suffering bird flu in the spring:
Ma'anshan City, Guangde County, Jieshou City and Fuyang City. The
recent fifth was in Juchao District of Chaohu City, near one of
China's largest freshwater Chaohu Lake.
The headquarters has ordered close monitoring of bird-to-human
infection despite so far no such cases were found. The health
authorities are monitoring to scrutinize any flu-like cases,
unidentified pneumonia patients and deaths.
The 37 people who had close contact with dead chickens or worked
in the outbreak site were removed from medical observation
Saturday. But the provincial health bureau cautioned lower health
authorities to keep vigilant against any human infections and
medical check and home visits to those working in poultry farms
should be strictly carried out.
The provincial government asked provinces and cities next to
Anhui to lift their ban over the entry of poultry products from the
province. Six provinces and Shanghai Municipality have all ordered
suspension to ship in poultry from Anhui since the outbreak on July
3.
Officials with the government of Anhui said the province has
done proper measures to successfully control the bird flu and other
parts of the province are not affected except the outbreak
area.
Anhui is a major producer of poultry, with an annual output of
800 million birds, 860,000 tons of bird meat and 1.2 million tons
of eggs. About 40 percent of its production sells to neighboring
provinces and cities.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2004)