Bird flu death toll climbs to 17 as China denies cover-up

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, February 06, 2004

Bird flu death toll climbs to 17 as China denies cover-up

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The death toll from Asia's bird flu crisis has risen to 17 as China rebuts accusations that it is covering up the disease and insists it has no human infections so far. A 16-year-old Vietnamese girl from Soc Trang Province died after being hospitalized late January.

Her death brings the number of human infections in Vietnam to 16, 12 of whom have died. Thailand, where five people have died, is the only other country to have confirmed human infections of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu.

On Thursday, China's Vice Health Minister Wang Longde refuted allegations of human infections in the country.

He said since the SARS outbreak, the Ministry of Health has strengthened its surveillance system. If there is any suspected human case, the local health authorities will report it to the ministry immediately.

So far, a total of 13 of China's 31 regions have now been hit by the outbreak.

On the same day, health experts, who wrapped up two days of urgent talks in Rome, urged countries fighting bird flu to step up cooperation, upgrade hygiene measures, and ensure the early reporting of outbreaks.

Source: agencies

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