November 23, 2005

Chinese schoolteacher confirmed not to have bird flu

Blood tests on a Chinese schoolteacher who fell ill in an area that suffered a bird flu outbreak showed that he did not have the virus, a World Health Organization official said Wednesday.

The teacher lived in the same county in the central province of Hunan as a nine-year-old boy who was confirmed to be one of China's first human cases. The boy's 12-year-old sister, who died, was a suspected case.

"Based on an extensive range of blood tests, he's been excluded as a case of H5N1," said Dr. Julie Hall, an infectious diseases specialist for the WHO's Beijing office.

The 36-year-old teacher fell ill after chopping raw chicken, according to the government.

Chinese experts initially said all three tested negative for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. But they later reopened the investigation and asked the WHO for help.