As winter chill takes over, bird flu returns, threatening to
become a seasonal presence in parts of Asia.
The intervals between outbreaks shortened suddenly last week,
prompting the World Health Organization to issue a global
alert.
As of today, cases of poultry or human infections have been
reported in Vietnam, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea,
Japan and China
Two dead birds have tested positive for the H5 bird flu in Hong
Kong. The source of the highly pathogenic type A (H5N1) virus that
infected a man in Anhui Province remains a mystery.
It remains to be seen if those are isolated cases or precursors
to another outbreak. According to scientists, we will not get a
clear answer until February and March.
But the current peak of seasonal flu infections in north China
deserves special attention. Places like Beijing are witnessing an
annual peak in flu outbreaks. Although the overall situation is
still normal and the peak is said to have passed, experts have
their own worries.
Once regular flu infections coincide with those of bird flu,
things will become very complicated, or even dangerous. Confluence
of the two may confuse ordinary citizens and doctors, because their
initial symptoms are very similar.
The feared variation of bird flu viruses may occur as a result,
which may in turn make possible human-to-human infection of the
life-threatening disease.
Though there still is no evidence of human-to-human transmission
of bird flu, the WHO has similar concerns and has warned of a major
outbreak caused by potential virus variations.
According to a national animal epidemic prevention plan released
recently by the State Development and Reform Commission, our
government wants to bring major epidemics in animals, including
bird flu, under effective control and eliminate them in some
regions by 2015.
Epidemic emergencies in the past few years have helped the
nation to lay a decent foundation for epidemic information
sharing.
Beyond that, the average citizen must be mobilized to improve
our collective immunity. We have developed effective flu vaccines,
and a new one for bird flu is reportedly available for human
use.
Encouraging vaccine use may be an important part of the
government's efforts to organize a defense network.
(China Daily January 15, 2007)