Two human cases of H5N1 bird flu in China confirmed

Featured Article
Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 16 Nov 2005 - 21:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

China has confirmed its first human cases of H5N1 bird flu (avian flu). The patients are a boy, 9, Hunan province, and a woman, 24, Anhui province. The woman died last week. The boy became ill on October 10th, he is no longer in hospital.

The boy's sister, 12, died one month ago. The problem is, according to Chinese authorities, that they can't get any good samples for testing for bird flu. She is suspected of having had bird flu.

So far, 126 people have had bird flu since 2003, of which 64 have died - add to this the two new Chinese patients, plus the third suspected patient (the boy's sister).

China has had 11 outbreaks of bird flu among its poultry stocks over the last four weeks. Authorities aim to vaccinate all the country's poultry, over 5 billion birds.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations