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Public hospitals to step up bird flu precautions
<!-- The Hospital Authority is to step up its bird flu surveillance program in public hospitals as from today.
//-->Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Hospital Authority is to step up its bird flu surveillance program in public hospitals as from today.
The measure will be in place for at least four weeks following the discovery of two bird flu cases in Jiangsu province. The authority said airlines have been asked to distribute health information leaflets to people traveling to Jiangsu, and announcements will be made to those traveling to Hong Kong.
Temperature checks will remain in place at all immigration points. Mainland authorities yesterday said the latest human bird flu cases appear to be isolated events with no other people affected and no reported outbreaks among poultry flocks.
Beijing's clarification came after fears of human-to-human transmission mounted following the death of a 24-year-old man in Jiangsu from bird flu on December 2 and an announcement a week after that his father too had the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said the father, surnamed Lu, 52, was recovering and that there was no evidence he had contracted the disease from his son.
"There is no biological basis [that this is a case of] human- to-human transmission, " Mao said.
The H5N1 strain has passed from human to human only in very rare cases and scientists fear that such a mode of transmission could become more efficient and widespread through mutation, causing a global pandemic.
Mao said the strain that killed the son had not been a H5N1 mutation. He said 34 people who had close contact with the father and the son are still being kept under observation but none had shown symptoms of the disease.
There is no report of bird flu outbreaks among poultry in Jiangsu either. This followed a familiar pattern in the mainland where humans have contracted the disease in an area where there have been no reported outbreaks among poultry. With the world's biggest poultry population, China is at the center of the fight against bird flu.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...=20071211&fc=2
<!-- The Hospital Authority is to step up its bird flu surveillance program in public hospitals as from today.
//-->Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The Hospital Authority is to step up its bird flu surveillance program in public hospitals as from today.
The measure will be in place for at least four weeks following the discovery of two bird flu cases in Jiangsu province. The authority said airlines have been asked to distribute health information leaflets to people traveling to Jiangsu, and announcements will be made to those traveling to Hong Kong.
Temperature checks will remain in place at all immigration points. Mainland authorities yesterday said the latest human bird flu cases appear to be isolated events with no other people affected and no reported outbreaks among poultry flocks.
Beijing's clarification came after fears of human-to-human transmission mounted following the death of a 24-year-old man in Jiangsu from bird flu on December 2 and an announcement a week after that his father too had the H5N1 strain of the virus. Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said the father, surnamed Lu, 52, was recovering and that there was no evidence he had contracted the disease from his son.
"There is no biological basis [that this is a case of] human- to-human transmission, " Mao said. The H5N1 strain has passed from human to human only in very rare cases and scientists fear that such a mode of transmission could become more efficient and widespread through mutation, causing a global pandemic.
Mao said the strain that killed the son had not been a H5N1 mutation. He said 34 people who had close contact with the father and the son are still being kept under observation but none had shown symptoms of the disease.
There is no report of bird flu outbreaks among poultry in Jiangsu either. This followed a familiar pattern in the mainland where humans have contracted the disease in an area where there have been no reported outbreaks among poultry. With the world's biggest poultry population, China is at the center of the fight against bird flu.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_d...=20071211&fc=2
