A bird flu drill has been staged in Shanghai to lift awareness of the deadly disease.

Twelve countries have reported 337 human bird flu cases and 207 people have died from the condition.

China reported 27 human bird flu cases, resulting in 17 deaths. The most recent was a father and son in Jiangsu Province. They were diagnosed on December 3 and 7, and one man - the son - has died.

Shanghai has entered the peak season for respiratory infectious diseases.

Local health authorities have issued notices on disease monitoring and control and called for every disease prevention center and medical facility to be alert.

The drill was conducted with local health staff and involved examinations for training they had received, officials said.

During the drill, a 25-year-old man identified as Qin Liu in Jing'an District started to suffer fever on December 11, coughing and headaches.

He went to his neighborhood health center at 9am on Saturday and was transferred to Jing'an District Central Hospital's fever clinic at 9:20am.

He told doctors about his trip to Thailand a week before and of his experience of watching a live cock fighting match, showing pictures of the spectacle.

The hospital transferred Qin to an observation room for treatment of pneumonia with unknown cause at 9:30am and reported to the district health authorities at 9:40am. A primary epidemiology examination was immediately launched. City health authorities received information from the examination at 9:45am.

After a city-based expert panel diagnosed Qin as being a suspected human avian influenza case at 10:30am, authorities informed the neighborhood health center to contact people who had been in close contact with Qin.

Qin was transported to Shanghai Public Health Center, the city's special hospital for infectious disease, by ambulance at 11:15am.

The entire drill ended at 11:45am.

(Shanghai Daily December 17, 2007)