Posted on 05/23/2005 5:48:47 PM PDT by blam
China treats 3m farmyard birds in avian flu fear
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 24/05/2005)
The Chinese government moved into overdrive yesterday in belated reaction to an outbreak of bird flu in migrating geese, sending three million doses of vaccine to the vast north-west region.
Last week, 178 geese that died on Lake Qinghai, a breeding ground on the Tibetan plateau, were confirmed as having died from the bird flu virus, H5N1.
A health worker disinfects a motorbike in the town of Qinghai
No other cases have been reported in China this year, and the distance of the lake from any land border, particularly with Vietnam, the worst affected country, led scientists to conclude that the bar-headed geese contracted the disease elsewhere. They fly over the Himalayas from India in the spring to breed on the plateau.
Officials have closed all China's nature reserves, including Bird Island, a tourist attraction on Lake Qinghai. They will attempt to vaccinate all three million farmyard poultry in Qinghai province within two days.
One specialist said: "People do not need to panic and should be confident that the new cases will be brought under control as effective measures have been taken."
Despite their experience with Sars, the pneumonia that killed hundreds of Chinese after being covered up by the government two years ago, and allegations of concealing bird flu cases, the response of officials is still to play down viral outbreaks.
Officials in Qinghai at first denied that the geese fatalities were caused by bird flu, an announcement that was put down yesterday to "inexperience".
In a second admission, the government reported two outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. Foreign agricultural experts say this is also endemic throughout China, though rarely publicised.
More than 50 people in south-east Asia, mostly in Vietnam, have died after contracting bird flu. The World Health Organisation fears that should a new strain spread more easily among humans it could cause a worldwide epidemic, killing millions.
China claims not to have suffered any human infections. But Vietnamese health officials said yesterday that preliminary tests had shown another person had died of the virus at a hospital in Hanoi last week.
Malik Peiris, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University, said there was a "significant possibility" that domestic poultry in China, the world's number two producer after America, could be at risk.
Ping.
In a second admission, the government reported two outbreaks of foot and mouth disease
It's also not responding to Tamiflu, so if you get it, you're pretty much on your own.
We may get lucky. I hope so.
"Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) is so virulent that only a quarter of people in whom the infection spreads to the chest survive."
TWO AT A TIME, MAX!
Spooky stuff. I wonder how much is going on that we are not hearing about. I hope these countries are as on top of these bugs as the story makes it seem. Very doubtful in my opinion
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