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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, February 05, 2004

Bird flu under control, no human infection: press release

China has put bird flu under control and there has been no report of a human contracting the disease, said a Ministry of Agriculture press release Thursday. China had reported five confirmed cases and 18 suspected cases of bird flu by Wednesday, since the first confirmed case was announced on Jan. 27.


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China has put bird flu under control and there has been no report of a human contracting the disease, says a Ministry of Agriculture press release Thursday.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the prevention and control of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which struck some Asian economies and recently found in some places in China.

Chinese government is confident in the fight against the highly pathogenic avian influenza, though it remains an arduous task for the country to prevent and control the disease, said Vice Minister of Agriculture Liu Jian at the press conference.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have made instructions on many occasions, and the State Council has organized meetings to hear reports, work out measures and make arrangements for combating the disease, he said.

In response to the requirements of the State Council, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and some other departments have taken immediate actions and put the disease control as their priority work, he said.

At present, complete networks have been developed respectively for disease control and animal surveillance, including 300 surveillance stations directly under the control of MOA and 147 disease surveillance points along the borderline.

He said national reference labs and animal disease diagnostic labs are also established at provincial and ministerial levels. The emergency plans and technical standards are developed for controlling animal diseases.

Three features for bird flu in mainland
The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, outbreaks in China have three features, according to the press.

Firstly, they occurred in spots that widely scatter. Secondly, the situations were more serious in southern China, while outbreaks were reported largely in central, eastern and southern China. Thirdly, the virulence of the virus was relatively stronger,according to the press release.

Besides causing disease and death in large number of chickens, the sub-type H5N1 strain that affected Chinese mainland can also cause disease and death in other poultry such as ducks and geese. In bird flu cases found so far in China, 16 cases are with chickens, 5 with ducks, and 2 with geese.

China confident of curbing bird flu
Liu Jian said that the Chinese government was confident containing the outbreak of bird flu in the country. China had established complete networks for diseasecontrol and animal monitoring, comprising 300 monitoring stations directly under the control of the ministry and 147 disease surveillance points on its borders.

National reference and animal disease diagnostic laboratories have been established at provincial and ministerial levels, and emergency plans and technical standards have been developed for controlling animal diseases.

With the help of professionals in disease control and public efforts, and based on the experience gained from the fight againstSARS last year, government departments, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and the State Council, would together win the battle against avian influenza, Liu said.

The government had urged authorities around the country to continue strengthening their efforts to fight the disease.

Decisive measures would be taken to quarantine the infected areas, while the culling and safe disposal of all poultry at infected sites and in surrounding areas within a 3-kilometer radius would be carried out, along with compulsory vaccination of poultry in areas within 5 kilometers.

Liu said preventive and control measures would be taken in non-infected areas, putting the principle focus of prevention and control on areas surrounding infected sites, key production regions, key breeding farms, large-scale poultry farms, specialized large poultry-farming households, large transportationhouseholds, and large processing households.

Liu also called for rigorous medical monitoring and prevention of bird-to-human transmission, the prevention and control of the avian influenza through enhanced scientific research and public education campaigns.

He said efforts should be made to intensify disease surveillance. Starting from Feb. 5, the Ministry of Agriculture would launch the new release system to inform the public of the epidemic situation and provide other relevant information.

China would improve the compensation policy for culls and compulsory immunization and facilitate access to resources such asfunds, vaccines, medicines, equipment and other materials as well as technical measures, Liu said.

In line with the urgent circulation by the State Council, the heads of local governments would be entirely responsible and liable while following strictly the regulations and they would be held responsible for neglect of their duties.

The national bird flu prevention headquarters would dispatch five inspection groups to 10 provinces shortly to carry out checksand monitoring work, Liu said.

China reports, diagnoses bird flu according to law
China has reported and diagnosed all its bird flu cases in line with its epidemic prevention law and a series of technical standards, said the Vice Minister.

In response to a question whether any party was trying to coverup outbreak of the disease in China, Liu said China had reported its first bird flu case to the public on Jan. 27, the very day it was discovered in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Liu said China had also reported the case in time to the China offices of World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

All these were conducted in line with China's Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention and regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture,he said.

Government administrations in all Chinese localities had been requested to report all bird flu cases timely and in line with thelaw, and diagnose the disease in accordance with a set of comprehensive technical standards, said Liu.

China determined to improve animal epidemic control ability
China will improve its mechanism ofanimal epidemic prevention and control, said Liu. Since China reported its first case of bird flu caused by the deadly virus H5n1 on Jan. 27, the nation has taken decisive measures in controlling the epidemic, Liu said.

However, the epidemic prevention and control work has also met some difficulties as poultry is in a huge number in the country, farmers might take diversified raising methods, and besides, poultry farms are always sporadically distributed in countryside, said Liu.

"But we believe we can bring it into control as long as we makeefforts and rely on science and the people," Liu said.

Considering the difficulties and problems in the battle againstbird flu, Liu said, the country will further improve the prevention and control mechanism of animal epidemics.

"We will also strengthen our efforts in research of animal epidemics," the vice minister said.

China has established sound communications to curb bird flu
Liu said that the Chinese government hadestablished sound communication with United Nations agencies and between government departments and health authorities to contain the bird flu outbreak.

"Once a case is found, we report it to the Ministry of Health. We also demand the local animal and agricultural departments report to local health departments immediately," Liu said.

"We have tight cooperation with the Ministry of Health to safely handle procedures in infected areas to curb the spread of the disease," Liu said.

Liu said that once the first case in China was confirmed on Jan.27, the government reported it to representatives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in China, and since then, China had reported to the FAO and WHO three more times.

"After consulting with the representatives of the FAO, China has established a regular reporting system," Liu said.

Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde said the general offices ofhis ministry and the Ministry of Agriculture had issued documents demanding tighter coordination between health and agriculture departments at all levels, and cooperation between human resourcesand material resources to control the disease.

"All poultry within 3 kilometers of the infected sites have been killed and all poultry within 5 kilometers have been compulsorily vaccinated," Liu said.

"All poultry markets within 10 kilometers of infected sites have be closed."

Liu and Wang said communication had been established between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health. Both ministries had cooperated well when fighting SARS last spring.

China had reported five confirmed cases and 18 suspected cases of bird flu by Wednesday, since the first confirmed case was announced on Jan. 27, according to the press release.

By Feb. 4, some 56,417 poultry had been infected with bird flu and 49,236 died. The country had slaughtered 1,215,057 chickens, ducks and geese to prevent spread of the disease.

By People's Daily Online


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