China warns of "grim" fight against deadly bird flu

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Reuters

BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) - China faces a "grim" situation in preventing and controlling human cases of bird flu, the health minister said, after announcing four human infections in the last two weeks and three deaths.

Health Minister Chen Zhu called for hospitals to spare more resources in diagnosing and treating bird flu and more cooperation between agriculture authorities and his ministry, Xinhua news agency said.

A Chinese newspaper reported that the mother of a toddler diagnosed with bird flu had died of severe pneumonia earlier this month, but no samples had been taken to see if she had bird flu. She had been in contact with poultry before her death.

The toddler, and the three recent fatalities, have all fallen ill in areas where there have been no known cases of bird flu in birds. China vaccinates heavily for bird flu, raising concerns among some experts that the vaccines could be masking the presence of the virus.

"The current cases are separate cases. There's no connection," Shu Yuelong, vice director of virus control and prevention with the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK277826.htm

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I hope their cooperation with the WHO is better this go-round than it has been in the past.

[Lasher]

1. Oh good, that's just what we need.

A long feared bird flu epedimic could hit in the middle of the worldwide Bush Depression.