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Over the past month China has seen a number of Human H5N1 infections coming from widely separated regions of their country, yet they have failed to detect any outbreak in poultry - believed to be the most common vector of the virus.
This has led to much consternation and speculation, both in China and around the world.
The discovery of H5N1 infected bird carcasses in Hong Kong, presumably arriving from mainland China, has only served to increase concerns.
Last week Dr. Zhong Nanshan - a well respected respiratory disease specialist and hero of the SARS outbreak - publicly stated that healthy looking poultry could be carrying the H5N1 virus.
He warned the public to be aware that poultry can be infected with the bird flu virus but show no symptoms. Zhong went on to say, "The existing vaccines can only reduce the amount of virus, rather than totally inactivating it."
Dr. Zhong's theory has not exactly been warmly embraced by the Ministry of Agriculture. They insist that they've had no reports of sick poultry and have inspected healthy-looking birds, and can find no sign of H5N1 infection.
It would be hard to envision a worse nightmare for the MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) than a partial failure of their vaccination program.
At stake is an industry that raises 15 Billion birds each year, and a goodly portion of China's meat supply.
Anything that adversely affects either one of these could result in severe economic, social, and political repercussions.
Tuesday February 10, 2009
China Health Ministry 'puzzled' by bird flu cases
By Lucy Hornby
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Health Ministry is puzzled by eight human cases of bird flu in January that appeared independent of any known case in birds, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Five Chinese died from H5N1 in January in far-flung regions without any reported presence of the virus in birds on the mainland.
Dead birds that washed up in Hong Kong tested positive for the H5N1 strain this month, leading experts to question whether bird flu is widely present but undetected in China.
"We see the result, but not the cause. We don't know where it has come from, but people have been infected. When people are infected, in theory it should be present in birds," spokesman Mao Qunan told reporters.
The Ministry of Agriculture has reported one case of bird flu detected through sampling this winter, in eastern Jiangsu province. It conducts random samples and culls birds when the virus is found.
Last week, the Agriculture Ministry defended its vaccination campaign as having successfully prevented widespread incidence of bird flu.
The Ministry of Health has also urged hospitals to increase efforts at early detection and testing for bird flu, Mao said.
Some people may be genetically more susceptible to bird flu than others, he added.
For more on this ongoing mystery, see:
China Defends Poultry Vaccination Program
China's Missing Link
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