December 23, 2004

 

 

China Set To Tackle Bird Flu With Test Kit

 

China is gearing up to fight possible outbreaks of bird flu this winter while training scientists and health workers across the country to diagnose the deadly disease in humans and animals, a top scientist has revealed.

 

Outbreaks of the H5N1 strain - where 70 percent of the humans infections this year resulted in death -- often go undetected in China's poultry populations. The country is determined, however that this dangerous precedence will not go on.  

 

"We're training scientists and technical staff in 21 provinces and cities. The aim is to diagnose H5N1 in humans and animals," said Guan Yi, a microbiologist with the University of Hong Kong, in an interview.

 

"Now, farmers just burn or bury dead chickens, no one cares how they died. If this does not change, we will have a situation far, far worse than SARS," he said. "Only when we stop this virus circulating in animals can humans be safe."

 

Health experts, including the World Health Organisation, have issued dire warnings that H5N1 could unleash a pandemic this winter and kill as many as 50 million people globally.

 

The virus killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam this year and millions of chickens, ducks and other birds have been culled across Asia to stop the spread.

 

The region was plagued by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic last year, which killed about 700 people. China and Hong Kong were the worst affected.

 

There were fears that H5N1 might re-appear this week, after reports that South Korea had found a suspected milder form of bird flu at a duck hatchery. It said it would slaughter all 9,000 ducks to prevent the spread.

 

Japan's Health Ministry said this week that at least one person had been infected with H5N1 after an outbreak among chickens in February. Four others had probably been infected, but none of the five had developed any symptoms.

 

Guan said the virus was endemic in Asia and currently there were outbreaks of the disease among poultry reared in China and Southeast Asia.

 

"Right now, there are outbreaks of the disease in some parts in China. There are also outbreaks in some places in Southeast Asia," he said, although declining to reveal details. "Governments are just covering up."

 

Apart from vaccinating those susceptible to infections, scientists like Guan are trying to teach farmers and farm workers to check for the disease in animals. Some species are known to show no symptoms even when infected.

 

This is dangerous because the virus will spread unnoticed among animals, increasing human exposure to the disease.

 

To prepare for what may be a major explosion of the disease, scientists in Hong Kong and China have recently developed a new diagnostic kit to detect the virus in less than an hour.

 

Scientists and laboratory technicians in China have undergone training since late November in order to learn how to use the test kits, which Guan said should be used in hospitals and farms.

 

"It would be very convenient for local scientists to make early diagnosis, so they can move to put the outbreak under control," said Guan, who spearheaded the first training session in Shantou, southern China, in late November.

 

Until then, only one laboratory in Harbin in the north-eastern China's Heilongjiang province -- is permitted to handle such infectious and pathogenic virus samples and results could only be obtained after three or four days.

 

Farmers should be made to check their animals regularly, even if they appear healthy.

 

"If there's avian flu in a farm, we'll be able to take action at once, whether a batch of chickens or ducks can be sold. The virus will then be prevented from going into cities," he said.