Delay in Reporting China?s (H7N9) Avian Flu Outbreak Questioned

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/w...u-announcement-questioned.html?pagewanted=all


Delay in Reporting China?s Avian Flu Outbreak Questioned
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 10, 2013

HONG KONG ? Of all the mysteries surrounding the emergence of a new and deadly strain of avian influenza around Shanghai, one of the biggest is why China?s hundreds of medical and veterinary labs did not spot the problem sooner ? or if they did, why it was not disclosed.

Even the censored Chinese news media has begun cautiously questioning why the authorities did not say anything sooner about a disease that resulted in the first known human case in eastern China on Feb. 19, but was not announced to the public until March 31...

 

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Re: Delay in Reporting China?s (H7N9) Avian Flu Outbreak Questioned

Source: http://africa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-04/11/content_16391664.htm


Authorities deny delay in H7N9 reports
Updated: 2013-04-11 01:40
By WANG HONGYI and WU NI in Shanghai ( China Daily)


A senior health official in Shanghai on Wednesday denied media reports that the city might have delayed reporting the outbreak of the previously lesser-known H7N9 bird flu to the national health authorities.

"We finally confirmed the deadly virus on March 20 and soon sent the virus sample to the national disease control department," Lu Hongzhou, deputy director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and a leading public health expert in the city, told China Daily.

The Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Wednesday that the Shanghai health department confirmed the H7N9 virus on March 10 but reported the virus to the national health department 12 days later, triggering public speculation that Shanghai had deliberately delayed reporting the case...

 

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Re: Delay in Reporting China?s (H7N9) Avian Flu Outbreak Questioned

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162...ed-for-transparency-during-bird-flu-outbreak/


CBS/AP/ April 11, 2013, 11:41 AM
China praised for transparency during bird flu outbreak

SHANGHAIAfter a new and lethal strain of bird flu, H7N9, emerged in Shanghai two weeks ago, the government of China's bustling financial capital responded with live updates on a Twitter-like microblog. It's a starkly different approach than a decade ago, when Chinese officials silenced reporting as a deadly pneumonia later known as SARS killed dozens in the south...

...Though some microbloggers and media are questioning why it took a couple of weeks after the first deaths for authorities to announce the new strain of bird flu, international health experts have broadly praised China's response. The government has said that it takes time for scientists to identify the virus and that such a finding had to be put through several layers of verification before being announced.

The new openness is thanks in part to people like Li Tiantian, founder of Dingxiangyuan, an online medical network popular with Chinese health care workers. His microblog is among a number of sites that have been tracking the government's response to the new bird flu. "It's evident that the strength of social media can pressure the government to be more open, more transparent," he said from his base in the eastern city of Hangzhou...

 

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Re: Delay in Reporting China?s (H7N9) Avian Flu Outbreak Questioned

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1215451/echoes-sars-bird-flu-panic


Echoes of Sars in bird flu panic

Families of H7N9 patients, having seen the response to the deadly new virus up close, say authorities are falling down on prevention, isolation
Tuesday, 16 April, 2013 [Updated: 04:53]

He Huifeng in Jiangsu and Zhejiang huifeng.he@scmp.com


Ten years since Sars incubated in China and sent shockwaves around the world, another deadly new disease, H7N9 bird flu, is fuelling fear across the nation.

The similarities in its sudden appearance and spread, and the questionable response of authorities to H7N9, have people wondering whether the lessons have been learned from severe acute respiratory syndrome - which killed about 800 people around the world after it emerged from the mainland. Those decade-old lessons could prove vital in this new battle with a frequently fatal but lesser-known virus.

Many of those already caught up in the outbreak - patients, their families and poultry industry workers - are not optimistic. The authorities could be doing more, they say, adding that the fact the virus does not appear to be spreading from person to person at the moment is luck, rather than good management...