AsianScientist (Apr. 8, 2013) – As of Sunday evening, China has confirmed 21 cases of human infection with H7N9 influenza virus, with six people dead.
Two of the latest cases are from Shanghai, and the third is a 55-year-old male working in the live poultry trade in east China’s Anhui province, according to a brief statement posted online by the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Close contacts of the confirmed cases are being closely monitored, and at this time there is no evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
In Hong Kong, tests carried out on a seven-year-old girl who visited Shanghai last month and who developed symptoms of illness after contacting live poultry showed negative for the H7N9 bird flu virus.
The WHO has issued a health advisory fact list in response to the outbreak, and does not recommend that any travel or trade restrictions be applied to China.
Chinese health authorities respond
The China Food and Drug Administration released a statement on Saturday announcing that it had approved a new type of flu drug that it believes may be effective in treating H7N9 bird flu virus.
Although no vaccine for the prevention of H7N9 infections is currently available, laboratory testing conducted in China has shown that the subtype is sensitive to treatment with a neuraminidase inhibitor called peramivir.
Shanghai authorities on Saturday also started banning all live poultry from other parts of the country from entering the city, after 19 samples collected at a poultry market in Shanghai tested H7N9 positive. 8 of the 19 samples were collected from seven chickens at the same marketplace where the virus was detected in a pigeon sample on Thursday, Xinhua reported.
The city, which has reported ten infections to date, including four deaths, has also temporarily closed three markets and ordered the culling of 98,000 poultry, according to the municipal agriculture commission.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine. Photo: JanneM/Flickr/CC.
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