China's latest bird flu patient was discharged from hospital
Wednesday in Guangdong Province, local health authorities
have said.
After being treated in the Donghu Hospital for seven weeks the
patient, a 31-year-old truck driver surnamed Jiang from Shenzhen,
had recovered sufficiently to return home, the Shenzhen municipal
health department reported.
On June 15, the Ministry of Health confirmed that Jiang had
contracted the H5N1 strain of avian influenza bringing China's
total number of human infections to 19.
Jiang had visited a local market several times where live
poultry was being sold before developing a fever and pneumonia on
June 3. He was critically ill when he was admitted for treatment,
said hospital head, Zhou Boping. Many internal organs showed signs
of failure and his lungs were severely infected, said Zhou.
Several forms of treatment were used including some "innovative
technology" said a medical source. Jiang's condition was the most
serious of all the Chinese bird-flu patients who'd recovered, said
the health department.
He has been doing well since late June. Examinations have shown
the avian influenza virus was no longer in his system on June 22
and by July 5 he was able to breathe without a respirator.
"Although he has recovered his lung still has a shadow and his
liver still needs time to fully recover," a health department
official said. Health workers will continue to monitor his physical
condition.??
Since appearing on Asian poultry farms in late 2003 bird
flu has infected 19 people in China and killed 12 of them. This
patient is the only male adult in the country known to have
survived the virus.
(Xinhua News Agency China Daily August 3,
2006)