Thread: China : Bird Flu Deaths Spark Cover-up Fears

Bird Flu Deaths Spark Cover-up Fears
Reported by Fung Yat-yiu for RFA's Cantonese service and Yang Fan for the Mandarin service.
Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
2013-04-01


File photo of a child looking at a chicken in a fowl market in Nanjing, east of China's Jiangsu province.
EyePress News

Two men in Shanghai were confirmed to have died from a new strain of bird flu, official media reported on Monday, prompting fears that Chinese health authorities were trying to play down a public health threat.

The two men died from the H7N9 avian influenza strain in early March, while a woman in Nanjing remains in critical condition, but Beijing waited nearly three weeks before making an announcement.

One of the men was 87 years old, and died on March 4 after being taken ill on Feb. 19, while the second died on March 10 after becoming ill on Feb. 27, the official China Daily newspaper quoted health officials as saying.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said it was monitoring the situation.

"There is apparently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and transmission of the virus appears to be inefficient, therefore the risk to public health would appear to be low," regional agency spokesman Timothy O'Leary told reporters.

Experts are still unsure of how the three people contracted the virus, although officials don't believe they caught it from each other.

An employee who answered the phone at the Shanghai No. 5 People's Hospital declined to comment on the cases, as did an official in the press office of the health and family planning ministry.

"You can keep looking at our official website," she said. "Right now we don't have any relevant information to announce."

'No common source of infection'

Hong Kong's secretary for food and health, Ko Wing Man, said the Special Administrative Region (SAR) government had already been officially informed of the new bird flu cases.

"So far, there is no common source of infection for these three cases," Ko said. "It could be pigs, but it could also be poultry."

"It seems that there wasn't a single source of infection, which is worrying and a cause for concern," he said.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong University infectious disease expert P.L. Ho said it was unusual for a virus without the H5 prefix to infect humans.

"These are special circumstances, in which the virus has not only infected humans, but has resulted in fatalities," Ho said.

"From a virological point of view, there is a possibility that the virus will mutate further," he said.

The news prompted concerns among residents of Shanghai, who are still reeling after tens of thousands of dead pigs were pulled out of a river that supplies their drinking water.

"Now, everyone is joking around that when you go out to eat, you can't eat poultry now, either," said a resident surnamed Yao. "We also had the dead pigs in the Huangpu river, and now they're saying that some of the diseased pigs were used to make steamed rice parcels."

The Hong Kong Oriental Daily News ran an editorial on Monday calling on Chinese health officials to provide people with timely and accurate information on the disease.

"The authorities waited more than 20 days before they announced this," the paper said. "It makes you wonder whether it was because they were holding the parliamentary sessions in Beijing at that time, and they wanted to cover up the truth at that time."

Announcement delayed?

Guangzhou-based rights lawyer Tang Jingling said the authorities had probably delayed the announcement out of concerns over social stability.

"The main reason is the 'stability maintenance' thinking of the authorities," Tang said. "They figure that if they announce it, the job of maintaining social stability will get a lot harder."

"Staying in power matters more to the [ruling] Chinese Communist Party than the safety of its people or their property," he said. "A lot of the information they do put out has been toned down; so they might for example cut the number of people infected and the true geographical extent of the infections."

"I don't think they would be open about these things."

Chinese public health procedures have come under intense scrutiny and suspicion since an official attempt to cover up the extent of the SARS epidemic of 2003 was exposed by a military doctor in Beijing.

The doctor was detained for several months in 2004 at an undisclosed location, while editors at a newspaper in the southern province of Guangdong that broke news about the deadly SARS virus were also harassed and detained.

rfa.org

Thailand clear of H7N9 bird flu
2 Apr 2013

The Public Health Ministry has confirmed there is no sign of H7N9 bird flu in Thailand, calming fears after reports that two people in China had died of this lesser-known strain of the deadly virus.

The more common H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed more than 360 people globally since it emerged in 2003 until March 12, 2013, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

So far there have been two deaths reported in Shanghai from the H7N9 strain, with another person reported to be severely ill.


Pradit: Bird flu situation not worrying

The health ministry has instructed all agencies to closely monitor the situation and report back immediately if large numbers of birds die at the same time, or if any people die from unclear causes.

Public Health Minister Pradit Sinthawanarong said on Tuesday the situation with bird flu in China is not at a worrying stage for now, and currently there is no indication the outbreak has spread to Thailand.

"This virus strain has never been found in Thailand," Dr Pradit said.

"The Department of Medical Sciences has set up a laboratory-based surveillance system and mobile teams to inspect possible outbreaks around the clock."

The Bureau of Epidemiology and hospitals nationwide were keeping a close eye on patients with acute respiratory problems, pneumonia and influenza symptoms, he said.

The Department of Disease Control is working closely with local agencies, including the Livestock Department, and foreign health agencies such as the World Organisation for Animal Health, he said.

The discovery of the emergence of this new strain, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, has caused the ministry to issue a full alert. It has set up the same monitoring measures used for outbreaks of human influenza or other strains of bird flu.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the health ministry will take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of bird flu in the country.

Livestock officers spray disinfectant on open-billed stork nests in Ayutthaya's Bang Pa-in district in February, 2011.
(Photo by Sunthorn Pongpao)

bangkokpost.com

Another speculative scare.

Not buying into it.

Tibet reports bird flu outbreak

DHARAMSHALA, May 15: An outbreak of the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus among chickens has been reported from the Nyingtri region of central Tibet.

China’s Ministry of Agriculture on Monday said 35 chickens at a farm in a village in Nyingtri “showed symptoms of the suspected avian flu and died last Tuesday.”

According to China’s state news agency, Xinhua, the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed that the virus was H5N1, after testing samples collected at the farm.

“Local authorities have sealed off and sterilised the infected area, where a total of 372 chickens have been culled and safely disposed of in order to prevent the disease from spreading,” the report cited MOA as saying.

The spread of the newly detected H7N9 virus in China has claimed 35 lives so far, while 57 infected patients have recovered according to China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Since the first H7N9 infections was reported in late March, China has confirmed a total of 130 cases.

H5N1 is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza (or "bird flu"). Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur occasionally, but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person. According to the World Health Organisation, when people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60%.

Last month, over 500 cattle heads were culled in the Tibetan capital region of Lhasa and another 156 cattle heads were culled in the Shigatse region after reported outbreaks of the foot-and-mouth disease.

phayul.com

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Another speculative scare.

Not buying into it.

I agree, many people die from the common flue strains, this crap about bird flue is blown out of proportion. Didnt they say last year, 75 people died from it in Thaliand, thats about 1 in 800000 and thats if those who died did so from bird flue. Many would have died if you slamed the car door. I will take the risk, there is no way I will get flue shots with some untested syrup, they have no idea if or how it will affect people in time to come.

All the chickens near our house in Esarn died in the past couple weeks. Not sure why but it seems it's pretty normal up here. People say it happens once a year anyways most years. We also had a puppy die from who knows what around the same time. We're all still alive so life goes on. Here and there nearby there are still plenty of healthy chickens running around.If there are cases in Thailand they won't make the news unless they are major die-offs.

No one really cares about anything in Thailand so if there ever is a major virus that can take down people Thailand is going to suffer greatly. Sabai Sabai until you die.