China says new bird flu cases found in central province Henan, the first cases found in the region and bringing the total number nationwide to 51

China says new bird flu cases found in central China

BEIJING — Two people in the central Chinese province of Henan have been infected by a new strain of avian influenza, the first cases found in the region and bringing the total number nationwide to 51, Xinhua state news agency said today.

4 HOURS 28 MIN AGO

BEIJING — Two people in the central Chinese province of Henan have been infected by a new strain of avian influenza, the first cases found in the region and bringing the total number nationwide to 51, Xinhua state news agency said today.One of the victims, a 34-year old man in the city of Kaifeng, is now critically ill in hospital, while the other, a 65-year old farmer from Zhoukou, is stable. The two cases do not appear to be connected.

Three cases have now been reported outside the original clusters in eastern China, including one in the capital Beijing, but there is nothing out of the ordinary so far, the China representative of the World Health Organization said.

“There’s no way to predict how it’ll spread but it’s not surprising if we have new cases in different places like we do in Beijing,” Michael O’Leary told reporters.

A total of 19 people in close contact with the two new victims were under observation but had shown no signs of infection, Xinhua said.

On Saturday, the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a seven year-old child in the capital of Beijing had been infected by the H7N9 bird flu virus, the first case to be reported outside of eastern China, where the new strain emerged last month.

The child’s parents work in the poultry trade.

Investigators are trying to ascertain the source amid fears that it could cause a deadly pandemic similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which killed about one in 10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

China has been anxious to avoid a repeat of the panic of 2003 by promising total transparency, and O’Leary said his organization has been “very pleased” about the way information was being shared.

Authorities say there is still no indication of human-to-human transmission of the virus, which has already killed 11 people in Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui.

“That’s a key factor in this situation,” said O’Leary. “As far as we know, all the cases are individually infected in a sporadic and not connected way.”

The husband of a H7N9 victim in Shanghai was recently infected, but O’Leary said there was no cause for alarm.

“If there’s only very rare cases … That’s different from the ease of transmission from person to person. It’s that ease of transmission that we are concerned about, and there’s no evidence of that yet.” REUTERS

China H7N9 bird flu spreads to new province

POSTED: 14 Apr 2013 10:58 AM
China’s H7N9 bird flu virus spread to a new province on Sunday, with state media reporting two human cases in central Henan just west of the area where the disease has been centred.

BEIJING: China’s H7N9 bird flu virus spread to a new province on Sunday, with state media reporting two human cases in central Henan just west of the area where the disease has been centred.

“Two new cases of H7N9 bird flu infection were reported in central China’s Henan province on Sunday,” the Xinhua state news agency said.

Until Saturday, when one case was reported in the capital of Beijing, all other instances had occurred in the eastern city of Shanghai and nearby Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces hundreds of miles (kilometres) away.

Altogether 51 people have been infected and 11 have died of the disease since Chinese authorities announced two weeks ago they had found H7N9 in humans for the first time.

Experts fear the prospect of such viruses mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which would have the potential to trigger a pandemic.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week there was as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of H7N9.

Health authorities in China say they do not know exactly how the virus is spreading, but it is believed to be crossing from birds to humans, prompting mass poultry culls in several cities.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has said H7N9 shows “affinity” to humans while causing “very mild or no disease” in infected poultry, making it more difficult to find the source of transmission.

In 2003 Chinese authorities were accused of trying to cover up the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which went on to kill about 800 people worldwide.

But China has been praised for transparency over H7N9, with the WHO saying it was pleased with the level of information sharing and US scientists congratulating it for “the apparent speed with which the H7N9 virus was identified” in a New England Journal of Medicine article.

China has said it expects to have a vaccine ready in seven months but in the article the US experts said developing one could take “many months”.

H7N9 hits central China as Henan reports 2 new cases

The deadly new strain of the avian influenza has spread to central China after health authorities in Henan province confirmed two cases of infection on Sunday morning.

The H7N9 subtype of the bird flu virus had killed 11 people and infected a total of 49 as at the end of April 13. All cases had been reported out of the eastern part of the country, such as Shanghai, Anhui province, Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province. Beijing reported its first case on Saturday.

At 6am on April 14, the health department of Henan province, located in central China and borders Jiangsu, confirmed two new cases of the H7N9 virus, bringing the total number of infections to 51.

The first Henan victim is a 34-year-old chef surnamed Ma, who first began showing symptoms of the virus on April 6 and is currently in a critical condition. The other victim is a 65-year-old farmer surnamed Zhang, who first exhibited symptoms on April 8 and remains in a stable condition after receiving emergency treatment. Both men were believed to have been in regular contact with poultry.

The 19 close contacts of the two victims have so far shown no symptoms of the virus, which experts believe has a low risk of human-to-human transmission.

Henan authorities have initiated emergency measures in light of the outbreak, calling for all hospitals to actively search for cases so that they can be detected, reported and treated as soon as possible. Health care institutions are also required to pool resources and strengthen communication and quarantine procedures.