Ronan Kelly
Retired 2020
Flu kills 2 students and 1 child Source: Global Times [02:28 November 06 2009] Comments By Deng Jingyin
Two high school students and a young child have died from the A(H1N1) flu, health authorities said Thursday, bringing the death toll from the virus to 11 on the mainland.
A 14-year-old boy surnamed Guo, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, died Tuesday, the local health department announced. He was treated for a fever on October 30 and was transferred Tuesday to the Fuyun People's Hospital where he later died.
Tests showed that Guo died of A(H1N1), viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the department said. He went to a school in Fuyun county, Altay prefecture.
Xinjiang has reported that 16 A(H1N1) patients are in serious condition and 985 patients recovered by Wednesday. Some 130 people are being treated at hospitals or are quarantined at home, the China News Service reported.
Another male high school student in Chengde, Hebei Province also died of the virus October 29, the provincial health department announced. It was the first A(H1N1) death in the province.
The province reported having 1,042 patients, of which 12 were in serious condition.
A boy, two years and 10 months old, from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region also died of the virus. The boy, from Qingtongxia, was admitted to hospital November 1 for pneumonia and died November 4.
In another development, health authorities in Taiwan and Hong Kong said separately they discovered the virus in pigs, the first such case in those two places. Authorities in both places believe that the virus was transmitted from man to pigs.
A spokesman for Hong Kong's Food and Health Bureau said no gene re-assortment has occurred and the virus remains genetically similar to the virus found in man, adding that it is still safe to eat pork.
Liu Youning, an expert on respiratory diseases at Beijing 301 Hospital, said schools should be monitored for virus control.
"The most critical time hasn't come yet," he told the Global Times. "Since the start of the fall semester, many confirmed cases have been found in schools. Having a large population on campus increases the risks."
He added that the A(H1N1) virus will continue to spread because of the cold weather, but the situation will improve by March.
Cao Zhixin, chief physician of the respiratory department in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said at a news conference Wednesday that people with a fever for at least three days could be seriously ill.
"We have analyzed the temperature variation from 1,054 A(H1N1) cases," he said. "If the patients haven't recovered in 72 hours, they are possibly critically ill."
The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education issued a notice Thursday prohibiting people from forcing students to have seasonal flu and pneumonia vaccines on the ground of preventing A(H1N1).
Health authorities also denied media reports that some schools charge a fee for A(H1N1) vaccine.
Vaccine manufacturers have accelerated production and will prepare dosages for 65 million people by the end of this year.
Up to Tuesday, the Chinese mainland has offered the vaccine to more than 4 million people with only 300 people reporting adverse reaction .
Liang Xiaofeng, head of the Immunization Planning Center in Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday that the adverse reactions of the vaccine are controllable.
The Chinese mainland has reported 51,490 confirmed cases of the virus by Wednesday.
http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2009-11/483018.html
Two high school students and a young child have died from the A(H1N1) flu, health authorities said Thursday, bringing the death toll from the virus to 11 on the mainland.
A 14-year-old boy surnamed Guo, in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, died Tuesday, the local health department announced. He was treated for a fever on October 30 and was transferred Tuesday to the Fuyun People's Hospital where he later died.
Tests showed that Guo died of A(H1N1), viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, the department said. He went to a school in Fuyun county, Altay prefecture.
Xinjiang has reported that 16 A(H1N1) patients are in serious condition and 985 patients recovered by Wednesday. Some 130 people are being treated at hospitals or are quarantined at home, the China News Service reported.
Another male high school student in Chengde, Hebei Province also died of the virus October 29, the provincial health department announced. It was the first A(H1N1) death in the province.
The province reported having 1,042 patients, of which 12 were in serious condition.
A boy, two years and 10 months old, from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region also died of the virus. The boy, from Qingtongxia, was admitted to hospital November 1 for pneumonia and died November 4.
In another development, health authorities in Taiwan and Hong Kong said separately they discovered the virus in pigs, the first such case in those two places. Authorities in both places believe that the virus was transmitted from man to pigs.
A spokesman for Hong Kong's Food and Health Bureau said no gene re-assortment has occurred and the virus remains genetically similar to the virus found in man, adding that it is still safe to eat pork.
Liu Youning, an expert on respiratory diseases at Beijing 301 Hospital, said schools should be monitored for virus control.
"The most critical time hasn't come yet," he told the Global Times. "Since the start of the fall semester, many confirmed cases have been found in schools. Having a large population on campus increases the risks."
He added that the A(H1N1) virus will continue to spread because of the cold weather, but the situation will improve by March.
Cao Zhixin, chief physician of the respiratory department in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said at a news conference Wednesday that people with a fever for at least three days could be seriously ill.
"We have analyzed the temperature variation from 1,054 A(H1N1) cases," he said. "If the patients haven't recovered in 72 hours, they are possibly critically ill."
The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education issued a notice Thursday prohibiting people from forcing students to have seasonal flu and pneumonia vaccines on the ground of preventing A(H1N1).
Health authorities also denied media reports that some schools charge a fee for A(H1N1) vaccine.
Vaccine manufacturers have accelerated production and will prepare dosages for 65 million people by the end of this year.
Up to Tuesday, the Chinese mainland has offered the vaccine to more than 4 million people with only 300 people reporting adverse reaction .
Liang Xiaofeng, head of the Immunization Planning Center in Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday that the adverse reactions of the vaccine are controllable.
The Chinese mainland has reported 51,490 confirmed cases of the virus by Wednesday.
http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2009-11/483018.html