China detected new cases of bird flu

China's Ministry of Health yesterday (10-1) announced a 37-year-old farmer in Anhui province was confirmed to be infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. This is the first case of human avian flu in the country since July 2006.

In the face of complicated developments in avian influenza, many countries have vaccinated poultry for prevention (Photo: AFP)

The patient was a carrier of Li's family, had symptoms of fever and pneumonia on December 10, 2006 and was discharged on January 6, 2007 in Tunxi, Anhui Province. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the patient confirmed positive for H5N1 virus.

This is the first human case of bird flu in China this winter. So far, this country has all 22 cases of bird flu, including 14 deaths.

Local health officials said those who had been exposed to Li had no unusual symptoms and had been removed from the surveillance.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, no cases of animal bird flu have been reported in the Li area and local health officials are closely monitoring the situation.

* Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Health said the 14-year-old boy who was treating bird flu at Rawamangun Hospital just died this afternoon, bringing the total number of deaths from bird flu in the country to 58.

According to Rumizar Rusin, an official at the Indonesian Ministry of Health's Center for Avian Influenza, many dead ducks have been found around the house before the teenager has symptoms. A team of experts from the Ministry of Agriculture was dispatched to the boy's living area to investigate.

On the same day, The Australian daily said thousands of birds fell to Esperance, a town 725 km southeast of Perth's capital, Perth, without a reason.

A series of examinations of dead birds have been carried out, but the cause of this phenomenon remains a mystery. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food has almost eliminated this as an infectious disease.

WALL VY