On Monday the Chinese Ministry of Health confirmed a man had
died from the H5N1 bird flu virus in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The victim,
a 62-year-old farmer, became ill on June 19 and died on July
12.
Epidemiological research showed the man did not have close
contact with any human cases of bird flu and sick or dead poultry
in the last month of his life.
The regional center for disease control (CDC) and prevention
tested his samples and got negative results 14 days after he fell
ill but a re-test by the national CDC on July 16 indicated he was
H5N1 positive.
On August 2, the national CDC looked at the rest of his samples
left from previous tests and again got positive results, said the
ministry. They confirmed it as a human case of bird flu by both
Chinese and World Health Organization standards and reported the
new case to them.
Local health authorities have tightened prevention and control
measures but have found no bird flu symptoms in people who had been
in close contact with the farmer.
This brings China's total number of human cases of bird flu to
21 and the death toll from the disease to 14.
An outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Xinjiang's Aksu City was
confirmed on July 14. A total of 3,045 chickens were killed by the
disease and another 356,976 were culled when the outbreak was
confirmed, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. It announced
on August 10 that the outbreak had been brought under control.
The information office of the Ministry of Health said they could
not link the new human case with outbreaks among poultry in the
region. The source of infection of the new case is still unclear,
according to spokesman of the Ministry of Health Mao Qun'an.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2006)