The 124 people who had close contact with a young man who died
of bird flu in Guangzhou, capital of south China's
Guangdong Province, earlier this month are no longer in
isolation
The Guangzhou City Health Bureau announced on Wednesday that the
124 were removed from medical observation on Sunday.
The 32-year-old man who died, surnamed Lao, was the first human
case of bird flu in Guangzhou. He started to show symptoms of fever
and pneumonia on February 22. He died on March 2 despite receiving
medical attention. Local medical experts ruled out that his
girlfriend, who had been suffering from a fever, had caught the
infection and she was discharged from hospital on Saturday.
Guangzhou also ended the daily report on the emergency measures
as no new bird flu outbreaks in poultry or any new suspected human
cases had been detected according to the local health bureau.
As of March 7, the Chinese mainland had reported 15 confirmed
human cases of bird flu. Of those infected 10 died. Globally 175
human cases have been diagnosed resulting in 95 deaths. These
figures were reported on the World Health Organization's website of
March 6.
(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2006)