Entirely Pets

The World Health Organisation (WHO) pressed China on Friday to provide information on a 12-year-old girl who Chinese officials say died of pneumonia, but who was initially suspected of contracting deadly bird flu.

WHO spokeswoman, Maria Cheng, said Chinese officials had as yet provided no information on the death of the 12-year-old girl on Oct. 17 in southern Hunan province, the site of China’s latest bird flu outbreak.

The girl’s 9-year-old brother is reported to be in a stable condition in hospital, also with pneumonia.

Some Chinese media reports have said the girl’s body was cremated and it was unclear what samples were taken, Cheng said.

“We need more clarification because both apparently had been exposed to sick chickens,” Cheng said.

A Chinese Health Ministry official, Chen Xianyi, told reporters the girl and her brother had contracted pneumonia. “There have been no cases of human infection of H5N1,” he said.

Since last week China has revealed three outbreaks of the H5N1 virus that killed 3,800 chickens, ducks and geese.

China has reported no human bird flu infections since the latest H5N1 outbreak first surfaced in Asia in late 2003. Since then, 62 people have died in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia and the virus has spread to Europe’s eastern border.

Farmers in China, as in many parts of Asia, live alongside their poultry and other livestock, increasing the chances of the disease spreading to humans, experts say. It also raises the chance of the virus mutating into a form that could spread easily among people, triggering a pandemic. Millions could die.

Source: Reuters

Filed under Bird Flu, Birds, Entirely Pets, Pet Meds |

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