October 28, 2005

China now says Hunan case is not from bird flu

Chinese health officials say that the 12-year-old girl's death, in a Hunan province village, was unrelated to the deadly H5N1 flu virus.

The young girl died with flu-like symptoms several days ago in a village in the central Hunan province where a bird flu outbreak had been reported.

But after an investigation, local Chinese health officials said she had died of severe pneumonia with acute respiratory difficulty.

The girl and her family apparently ate a chicken that died of an unspecified disease earlier this month.

The girl was later admitted into a hospital for cough and fever symptoms and were moved to several hospitals after that. She died in the intensive care unit of the children's hospital in Changsha, the provincial capital.

The girl's nine-year-old brother also started showing flu-like symptoms after the girl's death, and has been quarantined in the same hospital. However, the boy is in a stable condition.

No other person has been reported ill in the village.

Both the health and foreign ministries reiterated that no human infection has been reported in China so far.

A WHO Beijing official Alphaluck Bhatiasevi also said that there is no evidence that humans can get infected through eating well-cooked chicken.