# 2747
This is my 4th winter covering bird flu, and just about every winter we hear rumors about `something' going on in China. Often these reports come from Boxun, or some other dissident news outlet, and these reports are almost never confirmed by the Chinese.
Whether they signified anything real or concrete . . . well, that's hard to say.
The 2002-2003 SARS outbreak was effectively hidden for months as that virus burned its way through mainland Chinese provinces, and filled hospital wards with the sick and dying. There were thousands of cases before the rest of the world came to realize there was a problem.
The Chinese government can be very effective when it comes to containing or suppressing news.
At least in the short run.
And so it is again we find ourselves in a winter season, and the rumors and stories (mostly unverified) are coming again out of China.
Frankly, we know only what the Chinese government is willing to admit.
And for now they admit that 8 people contracted the H5N1 virus during the month of January. They deny outbreaks of the virus in poultry, while at the same time, blame infected birds as the source of these infections.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong, which sits adjacent Guangdong Province, has recently discovered dead birds on their beaches (ducks, geese, & chickens) - some of which have tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
The sudden upsurge in admitted human cases, the discovery of dead (normally domesticated) birds on the beaches of Lantau Island, combined with rumors and stories emerging from China, has got Hong Kong authorities worried.
What is different this winter over winter's past is that we are seeing open questioning of the situation in China by mainstream media sources. Not just dissent voices.
And authorities in Hong Kong are publicly questioning what is going on in mainland China.
BusinessWeek, Bloomberg, and today, The Telegraph have all run articles in the past couple of days questioning whether `something' is going on, and is being hidden, in China.
Meanwhile, the newshounds on the flu forums are on the job, looking for any clues as to what is going on.
If anything is seriously amiss in China (and despite the speculation, we don't know that yet), I wouldn't be surprised if they are the first to get wind of it.
China suspected of covering up bird flu outbreak
China is suspected of covering up an outbreak of bird flu among poultry, according to experts.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Last Updated: 11:56AM GMT 04 Feb 2009
The accusations came after at least 21 dead birds, including ducks and chickens, washed up on beaches in Hong Kong. At least three of them have tested positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus.
The Hong Kong government has said that there are no bird farms near where the corpses washed ashore and that it is liaising with the Chinese authorities to determine if they came from the Pearl River delta region.
There have been eight cases of bird flu infecting humans in January alone, five of which have been fatal. The cases have been distributed widely throughout China and there is a growing fear that contaminated poultry has entered the food chain.
There have been unconfirmed rumours that infected chickens in Jiangsu province were bleached with hydrogen peroxide and sold. There was a mass cull of 300,000 birds in December after an outbreak.
Lo Wing-Lok, a bird-flu expert in Hong Kong, warned that "something very terrible" could be happening in China. "There's no doubt there has been an outbreak, but the government has not admitted it," said Mr Lo.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation also said that there "must" have been outbreak among chicken, duck or geese flocks.
"There must have been some virus circulation or possibly some outbreaks lately," said Dr Vincent Martin, an FAO senior technical adviser on bird flu. "There are more cases than last year, including in places where the disease was not reported before," he said, but added that the FAO had not been told about any further problems since the Jiangsu incident.
Since bird flu rarely passes from human to human, the victims in January must have been infected by eating contaminated meat, he noted.
"There must be some suspicions of the disease reported to the ministry of agriculture, and some of those suspicions might have come up positive," he said. "We are waiting to receive some reports describing the overall epidemiological situation and the results of investigations."
The World Health Organisation declined to comment on whether or not there had been a cover-up by the Chinese government. China was widely criticised for suppressing and distorting the true extent of the SARS outbreak in 2003, when officials in Guangdong covered up the epidemic for almost six months before informing Hong Kong.
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