A somewhat biased view on China…
The first two confirmed human cases have been reported in China. A 24-year-old poultry worker died in the eastern province of anhui and a 9-year-old boy (see picture) in central Hunan who recovered. The boy’s 12-year-elder sister died a few weeks ago is also considered as a bird flue case by chinese investigator. However, she will not count in the WHO statistics because she was cremated before appropriate testing.
These are the first two human cases but many more could come due to the size of the poultry stock in China. However, so far, no genetic mutation nor spread between people have been observer. If this should happen, the risk of a flu pandemic would seriously increase.
Meanwhile, the huge vaccination campaign continue in China while Vietnam decided to kill all poultry stocks in most of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, its two biggest cities.
Sources
China Daily
[powered by WordPress.]
[hosted by TodayInChina.]
November 18th, 2005 at 10:43 pm
Hey guys! how are you living there this issue of the aviar flu? I’m a little bit worried about it because I’m going with my 2 daughters. How about expat hospitals? are they ready for this problem?
November 19th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
Hi Santi!
To answer you question, the situation in China is definitely serious but we didn’t notice any changes in our daily life in Beijing. We continue to eat eat “Gong Bao Ji Ding” almost everyday!
The Chinese government just started to vaccinate all the poultry (chicken, ducks, etc.) all over China. Also, they said this week that they are ready to phase any outbreak in Beijing with two hospitals chosen as quarantine centers.
Of course, if you are an expatriate with a good insurrance policy and you catch the bird flu, you might get accepted in one of the top expat hospitals. You’ll stay there for a few weeks watching pirated DVDs and it will cost your insurrance a few dozens of thousands of euros…