May 29, 2013
Beijing to include H7N9 testing in flu monitoring system
Beijing's Health Bureau said that the city's flu monitoring network will include testing for suspected cases of H7N9.
It means hospitals are supposed to test all highly suspicious flu cases for H7N9 virus from now on and report confirmed cases to health authorities regularly.
From April 1-May 20, the city got reports of 39 cases of pneumonia with unidentified causes, of which one was diagnosed with H7N9 infection. During that period, Beijing also tested samples of more than 16,000 flu-like cases and 1,422 people exposed to poultry. None of the tests found a case of H7N9.
"Now the risk of being infected with H7N9 is lower, but we will test for the virus in suspicious cases, such as when people with flu-like symptoms have been exposed to poultry or birds recently, in case such infection occurs," said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the city's centre for disease control and prevention.
Xinghuo said that hospitals that are able to do the test will test for the virus themselves, while those who are not able to do it should send a sample to the local centre of disease control and prevention after detecting suspicious cases.
