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China seeks to ease fears over bird flu threat
Beijing (AFP) Jan 21, 2009 China sought Wednesday to allay fears over the threat of a bird flu pandemic after three people died from the disease this month and a fourth person remained critically ill. There was no evidence that the potential for an outbreak of the disease was on the rise, China's health ministry said in a statement faxed to AFP. "The four cases separately came from different provinces, there is no epidemiological connection between them; they are sporadic cases," the ministry said. A 16-year-old boy died on Tuesday from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in the central province of Hunan. A 27-year-old woman also succumbed to the disease on Saturday in the eastern province of Shandong, while the first fatality occurred on January 5 when a 19-year-old woman died in Beijing. The total number of reported deaths in China since the virus re-emerged in 2003 now stands at 23. A two-year-old girl, meanwhile, is still critically ill in the northern province of Shanxi, the health ministry said. The toddler's mother died this month of severe pneumonia, sparking concern that she may actually have had bird flu and passed it on to her daughter. Scientists have long feared the virus could mutate to a form that could jump easily from human to human, potentially sparking a global pandemic. The health ministry said it was unable to do tests to confirm whether the mother had died of avian influenza, as no samples were collected when she passed away. But it added it was unlikely the girl caught bird flu from her mother. "We cannot be sure that the patient's mother had bird flu, and investigations show the patient had been exposed to live poultry markets," the statement said. "Therefore, we believe the patient's infection most likely came from a live poultry market or another unknown exposure." China is considered one of the nations most at risk from bird flu epidemics because it has the world's biggest poultry population and many chickens in rural areas are kept close to humans. The World Health Organisation says about 250 people have died from bird flu worldwide since 2003. Related Links Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola
Bird flu threat in China rises as third person dies
Beijing (AFP) Jan 20, 2009A 16-year-old boy Tuesday became the third person to die of bird flu in China this month, authorities said, fuelling concerns of more deaths as the nation prepares to celebrate the Lunar New Year. |
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