China finds new bird flu case in eastern Fujian province, signaling the spread of the H7N9 virus

China finds new bird flu case in eastern Fujian province: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese authorities discovered on Friday the first case of a new strain of bird flu in the eastern province of Fujian, signaling the spread of the virus which has killed 23 people in China, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The flu was first detected in March. This week, the World Health Organisation called the virus, known as H7N9, “one of the most lethal”, and said it is more easily transmitted than an earlier strain that has killed hundreds around the world since 2003. Fujian’s health authority said a 65-year-old man surnamed Luo had tested positive for the virus, Xinhua reported. Thirty-seven people who had been in close contact with the man had not shown symptoms of the flu. Chinese scientists confirmed on Thursday that chickens had transmitted the flu to humans. This week, a man in Taiwan become the first case of the flu outside mainland China. He caught the flu while travelling in China.

Published on Apr 26, 2013

SHANGHAI (AFP) – China’s deadly outbreak of H7N9 bird flu has spread to a province in the country’s south, the government said on Friday, marking the second announcement in two days of a case in a new location. The local health bureau in the south-eastern province of Fujian said a 65-year-old man was confirmed to have the virus. On Thursday, the eastern province of Jiangxi confirmed its first case of H7N9, in a 69-year-old-man. More than 110 people in mainland China have been confirmed with H7N9, with 23 deaths, since the government announced on March 31 that the virus had been found in humans. Most cases have been confined to eastern China. The island of Taiwan has also reported one case. A Chinese expert earlier this week warned of the possibility of more cases in a wider geographical area.“Until the source of H7N9 avian influenza is… brought under effective control, sporadic cases might continue to appear,” said Liang Wannian of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.

“The area of the epidemic might continue to expand,” he was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying on Wednesday.

Chinese researchers, reporting in The Lancet on Thursday, said they had confirmed poultry as a source of H7N9 flu among humans.

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

A visiting team from the World Health Organization (WHO), which wrapped up a week-long visit to China on Wednesday, said there had been no human-to-human transmission, but warned H7N9 was “one of the most lethal” influenza viruses seen so far.

Chinese health officials have acknowledged so-called “family clusters”, where members of a single family have become infected, but have declined to call it human-to-human transmission.

First H7N9 bird flu case confirmed in Fujian

English.news.cn   2013-04-26

FUZHOU, April 26 (Xinhua) — Health authorities in east China’s Fujian Province on Friday confirmed the province’s first human case of H7N9 avian influenza.

A 65-year-old man surnamed Luo, a local resident from Gaopo township, Yongding County, Longyan City, showed symptoms of repeated coughing, low fever and a tight chest on April 18. He was admitted to the No. 2 Hospital in Longyan on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by the provincial health department.

Luo tested positive for the H7N9 virus at 11 a.m. on Friday by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. An examination of the patient at a clinical laboratory in Fujian Province also confirmed Luo’s infection with the H7N9 bird flu, the statement said.

Thirty-seven people who have been in close contact with Luo have not shown any abnormal symptoms so far.

Four new cases of H7N9 bird flu were reported on Thursday, two in Zhejiang Province, one in Henan Province and one in Jiangxi Province.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission said in its Wednesday update that the total number of H7N9 cases reported in the mainland stood at 108, including 23 cases that have ended in death.

H7N9 bird flu spreads to southern China.