Bird flu sickens 8-year-old girl

CHINA / National

 Bird flu sickens 8-year-old girl
(Reuters/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-04-28 09:21

China announced the spread of H5N1 avian flu to an eight-year-old girl on
Thursday, its second human case this month coming a day after a top WHO
official warned the world not to tire of fighting the virus.

Bird flu's spread has led to the death and culling of 200 million birds
since late 2003, with scientists fearing the avian disease could mutate
to a form easily passed among people.

A vender unloads a duck from a truck outside a wholesale market in
Nanjing, March 24, 2006. China announced on Thursday that an
eight-year-old girl had caught H5N1 bird flu. [Reuters]
Britain and Ivory Coast prepared to start more poultry slaughtering after
discovering viral outbreaks, although Britain said the virus it had
detected at a chicken farm was probably not the H5N1 strain dangerous to
humans.

China's Ministry of Health said an eight-year pupil in southwest China's
Sichuan Province was confirmed to be infected with H5N1 bird flu, and was
being treated in a local hospital.

The girl, surnamed Sun, from Tangjia Township in Suining City of Sichuan
Province, showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on April 16. She is
being treated in a local hospital, according to the ministry.

Investigators report that poultry deaths occurred in the patient's house
before she caught the deadly disease.

Samples of the girl's lower respiratory tract tested positive for the H5
avian flu sub-type by the Sichuan provincial center for disease control
and prevention (CDC). China's national CDC confirmed the test result to
be H5N1 strain of bird flu on Thursday.

The patient has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance
with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese
official standards, said the ministry.

Governments and health departments at all levels in Sichuan Province have
taken immediate prevention and control measures after the human bird flu
case was confirmed.

People who were in close contact with the patient have been put under
medical observation by local health authorities. So far none has shown
any abnormal symptoms.

The ministry has reported the new case to the WHO and the regions of Hong
Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as several countries.

Confirming the news, the World Health Organization said in a statement
the girl's diagnosis brought China's laboratory-confirmed cases to 18, 12
of which had been fatal.

"She developed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on April 16. She remains
hospitalized," the WHO said.

Just over a week ago on April 18, China's Health Ministry announced the
country's 17th confirmed human H5N1 case, that of a migrant worker who
died a day later.

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