Four
more rare bird flu cases reported in China
Eastern
seaboard cities boost health measures in light of new H7N9 virus
CBC,
2
March, 2013
China
reported today that four more people in one province were made
seriously ill by a bird flu virus new to humans, while cities along
the eastern seaboard stepped up public health measures to guard
against a disease that has already caused two deaths.
The
health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said in a notice on its
website that three women, aged 45, 48 and 32, and an 83-year-old
retired man, from different cities in the province, were all
critically ill with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed by the
provincial disease prevention centre. These latest cases are the
second batch to be confirmed after three in Anhui province and nearby
Shanghai on Sunday.
The
H7N9 strain, so named for the combination of proteins on its surface,
has previously not been a problem in humans. That compares to the
more virulent H5N1 strain, which began ravaging poultry across Asia
in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close
contact with infected birds.
The
reports of the new cases likely suggested that authorities were
coming to grips with the virus. With the health agency having
identified the first known infections on Sunday, authorities were
likely taking a closer look at other severe flu cases.
"When
you don't look, you don't find them, but when you look, you'll find,"
said Dr. Ray Yip, a public health expert who heads the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation in China.
"A
lot of people get severe respiratory conditions, pneumonias, so you
usually don't test them. Now all of a sudden you get this new
reported strain of flu and so people are going to submit more samples
to test, [so] you're more likely to see more cases," Yip said.
All
the patients have been sick since about March 19, when they had
fevers, coughs and other flu-like symptoms, the statement said. Their
conditions worsened over periods of time ranging from a week to 11
days such that they were transferred to intensive-care units in the
provincial capital, Nanjing.
Based
on the bureau's statement, only one of the patients appeared to come
into daily contact with birds — the 45-year-old woman, who was
described as a poultry butcher. The four cases did not appear to be
connected, and people who have had close contact with the patients
have not reported having fevers or respiratory problems, it said.
Public
urged to stay calm
The
provincial health bureau said it was strengthening measures to
monitor suspicious cases and urged the public to stay calm, joining
Beijing and China's financial capital, Shanghai, in rolling out new
steps to respond to the relatively unknown virus.
The
latest cases follow the three earlier ones reported Sunday, including
two men who died in Shanghai, resulting in the city activating an
emergency plan that calls for heightened monitoring of suspicious flu
cases. Under the contingency plan, schools, hospitals and retirement
facilities are to be on the alert for fevers, and administrators are
to report to health authorities if there are more than five cases of
flu in a week.
Cases
of severe pneumonia with unclear causes are to be reported daily by
hospitals to health bureaus, up from the weekly norm. The plan also
called for stronger monitoring of people who work at poultry farms or
are exposed to birds.
The
Level-3 response plan, the second lowest in a four-stage scale,
reflects higher concern after the H7N9 bird flu virus led to the
deaths in Shanghai and seriously sickened a woman in the city of
Chuzhou 360 kilometres west.
"The
health bureau will take effective and powerful measures to prevent
and control the disease, to make sure the flu epidemic is effectively
guarded against and to safeguard the health of the city's residents,"
said Xu Jianguang, head of the Shanghai Health Bureau.
Cases
seem unrelated
Health
officials said this week there was no evidence that any of the three
earlier cases, infected over the past two months, had contracted the
disease from each other, and no sign of infection in the 88 people
who had closest contact with them.
Health
authorities in Beijing also upped the capital's state of readiness,
ordering hospitals to monitor for cases of bird flu and pneumonia
without clear causes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The
announcements, as lacking in details as they are, show that the
government is mildly more transparent in handling health crises than
it was a decade ago during the SARS pneumonia epidemic. Then, as
rumors circulated for weeks of an outbreak of an unidentified disease
in southern Guangdong province, government silence contributed to the
spread of the virus to many parts of China and to two dozen other
countries.
Scientists
are closely monitoring these viruses for fear they could mutate into
a strain that easy spreads among people, but there's no evidence of
that occurring.
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