Chinese Man dies of Bird Flu

Report: Chinese man dies of bird flu



By the CNN Wire Staff
December 31, 2011 -- Updated 1200 GMT (2000 HKT)






Authorities
in Hong Kong culled 17,000 chickens earlier this month, after three
birds tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.


STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A 39-year-old bus driver was hospitalized last week in southern China
  
• State-run media says he died from what appears to be a contagious strain of bird flu
  
• The Chinese government has suspended supplies of live poultry to Hong Kong
  

(CNN) -- A 39-year-old man in southern China died
Saturday from what appears to be a contagious strain of avian flu, state
media reported Saturday.

The man -- identified by Xinhua as a bus driver with the surname Chen
-- was hospitalized in Shenzhen on December 21 as he battled a fever.
He tested positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus, the provincial
health department said in a statement, according to the official news
agency.

The man had not traveled out of the city of Shenzhen, nor did he have
direct contact with poultry in the month before he came down with the
fever, according to the department.

Shenzhen borders Hong Kong, where more than 17,000 chickens were
ordered culled on the same day that Chen was hospitalized. That decision
came after a chicken carcass tested positive for avian flu.

The territory's director of Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation
declared the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market an
infected place, the government said then in a statement.

Farmers were told they could not send chickens to the market for 21 days.

The Hong Kong government said it was working to trace the origin of
the chicken, which was infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
But, as of December 21, authorities did not know the source.

Meanwhile, the General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine has since suspended supplies of live poultry
to Hong Kong, according to Xinhua.

As of mid-December, the World Health Organization calculated that 573
people had been infected -- and 336 had died -- after coming down with
the H5N1 avian influenza virus since 2003. Twenty-six of those deaths
had been in China, with the largest number of fatalities, 150, occurring
in Indonesia. Vietnam and Egypt had more than 50 deaths each.

This summer, the United Nations warned of a possible resurgence of
the virus -- which peaked in 2006, at one point infecting people in 63
countries -- saying there are indications a mutant strain may be
spreading in Asia.

A variant strain of H5N1 -- which can apparently bypass the defenses
of current vaccines -- had appeared as of late August in Vietnam and
China, reported the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations.

The group noted that the strain's movement around Vietnam threatened
Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Japan and the Korean peninsula. By then,
eight people in Cambodia alone had died this year after becoming
infected this year, the agency added.

In addition to the health impact, the avian flu outbreaks have also
come at a steep economic cost -- with the United Nations estimating
earlier this year that it had contributed to the killing of over 400
million poultry and caused losses estimated at $20 billion.

A.....chooooooooo..............

kitti wrote:A.....chooooooooo..............

kitti

Don"t mock too soon, we need to know it can be contained. Remember earlier this Year the bug which first of all Germany blamed on Spanish Cucumbers,
then it went all around Europe but all of a sudden everything went quiet,,,we still don"t know what caused it.