By Friday, all people having been in close contact with the new
bird flu case confirmed Tuesday in east China's Anhui
Province showed no abnormal symptoms, said sources with the
Department of Health of Anhui Province.
All 37 people who had contact with the poultry that died of the
deadly epidemic or who raised poultry at the farm reporting the
bird flu case in Juchao district, Chaohu city of Anhui Province,
have been registered and put under close medical observation, said
an official with the provincial Department of Health.
"Their temperature will be taken and their health state will be
reported to the provincial disease control center daily, all of
which have been put under the duty of specially appointed people,"
said the official.
According to Zhou Shiqi, the general agronomist of the
agricultural committee of Anhui Province, when the chickens began
to die in large numbers, the owner of the farm made an immediate
report to the epidemic prevention section at the basic level.
After being confirmed by the provincial agricultural committee
as suspected bird flu, the provincial government quarantined the
infected spot and began to cull poultry and disinfect the infected
spot while they sent the suspected cases to the Ministry of
Agriculture, said Zhou.
After the deaths were confirmed to be caused by H5N1, a highly
pathogenic bird flu virus, the provincial government started an
emergency plan. As a result, all poultry within a radius of three
kilometers of the infected spot were culled, disinfected and buried
deeply, and poultry within five kilometers were give compulsory
immunization.
"Not only all poultry nearby the infected spot were culled, but
also the henhouse and feeding stuff were disinfected. And as the
location of the poultry farm is naturally isolated by mountains and
fields, the transmission possibility of the highly infectious
disease is greatly reduced," said Zhou.
"So far, no new cases of bird flu were reported, which shows
that the infection of the disease has been kept under control,"
said Zhou.
For this reason, the official with the provincial Department of
Health held that the spread of the disease to humans was basically
impossible.
"But we still kept on high alert to stem the epidemic from
spreading to humans," he said.
A supervision and daily reporting system have been established
on patients having influenza symptoms, or having unidentified fever
nearby the infected spot.
Furthermore, substantial efforts have been taken to step up
supervision of drinking water and food of local residents and
instruction for environmental and individual sanitation nearby the
infected spot.
(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2004)