Bird flu can be contained: health officials
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E-mail China Daily, April 9, 2013
Chinese officials expressed confidence in curbing the H7N9 strain of bird flu, citing how the country has built capacity to deal with epidemics since the SARS outbreak.
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Liang Wannian, a senior official at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, discusses prevention and control measures for H7N9 bird flu at a news conference on Monday. Zou Hong / China Daily |
However, the possibility of the virus being transmitted between humans cannot be ruled out, a World Health Organization official said.
Michael O'Leary, the WHO's China representative, said such a possibility remains despite no one in close contact with the first human H7N9 cases having tested positive for the strain.
He made the remarks at a press conference with China's National Health and Family Planning Commission on Monday.
With three more cases reported on Monday, China has recorded 24 human cases of H7N9, seven of them fatal.
The three cases reported on Monday were in Shanghai and Jiangsu province.
A 4-year-old boy in Shanghai who on Thursday was confirmed infected with H7N9 has recovered, showing that not all human infections are critical.
"At this time, there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus, but no one can predict the future," O'Leary acknowledged, since influenza viruses can mutate.
He stressed the importance of keeping close surveillance of the viral activity.
If the virus mutates to spread among humans, a pandemic could follow, epidemiologists warned.
Liang Wannian, director of the health emergency response office under the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said, "We are closely monitoring the situation and have expanded virus tracking into more areas in the country."
Since the SARS epidemic in 2003, China has set up a nationwide surveillance network comprising more than 500 hospitals and 400 labs.
Mandatory reporting of unexplained pneumonia cases by health authorities has helped track the H7N9 virus.
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