December 9, 2005

Bird flu quarantine lifted in China's Xinjiang and Ningxia

Even as China lifted on Dec 8 the quarantines in two bird flu-hit areas in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, the country confirmed another bird flu victim in the Liaoning province.

The quarantines were removed after 21 days of isolation and monitoring, local authorities said. Xinjiang farmers are also likely to get compensation for poultry culled by month-end, said Urumqi Municipal Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau official Li Zhanqing.

In the meantime, a human case of bird flu has become the fifth confirmed infection in the past two months, said China's Ministry of Health Dec 8.

Of the other earlier four cases, two were reported in Anhui province, and one each in Hunan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The latest victim is a 31-year-old woman surnamed Liu from the Heishan county in Liaoning.

Liu, who reared chickens tha had died from bird flu, tested positive only the second time round on Dec 5. She had earlier shown symptoms of acute pneumonia, such as high fever and breathing difficulty, on Oct 30, but later recovered.

Also on Dec 8, the State Forestry Bureau set up a surveillance station for wild-life epidemics in Liaoning's capital Shenyang. The station will monitor various infectious diseases and their sources among wild animals, especially migratory birds, according to the station' s director Zhao Liangping.