October 31, 2005

China to shut border if bird flu infects humans
 

China will close its borders if a case of human infection from bird flu occurs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday, citing a government official.

Any move to close its borders would be in line with WHO's regulations and international practice, the agency reported the Ministry of Health's Chen Xianyi as saying.

Chen is the director of the office of health emergency at the ministry.

WHO experts were seeking confirmation Friday that a girl who died in a bird flu-affected Chinese village didn't succumb to a deadly strain of the virus.

As earlier reported by Xinhua, the local health authority in the girl's home province of Hunan in southern China said she died of "pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome and heart failure", not bird flu.

The girl lived in Wantang, a village where the government says 545 chickens and ducks died of bird flu last week. She died three days after developing a high fever on Oct 13. She was treated at the Provincial Children's Hospital in Changsha, Hunan's capital. Her younger brother also fell ill, on Oct 17. He had bronchial pneumonia according to the hospital, Xinhua said.

China has reported no human cases of bird flu, but scientists say the country could potentially be a huge incubator for the disease because of its large poultry industry and vast territory. It has reported three bird flu outbreaks in poultry since Oct 19, the latest in the dead girl's village.