The China Thread

China to shut borders if H5N1 mutates there -paper
22 Oct 2005 02:59:08 GMT

Source: Reuters

Background FACTBOX: Bird flu threatens to become global pandemic


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HONG KONG, Oct 22 (Reuters) - China will close its borders if there is a single case of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in the country, the South China Morning Post reported on Saturday, quoting a Chinese health official.

The newspaper said Huang Jiefu, a vice-minister of health, made the pledge at a meeting of health officials from China, Hong Kong and Macau in Kunming, Yunnan province on Friday.

Saving lives would be Beijing's top priority in efforts to contain a possible outbreak of bird flu, even if it meant slowing the economy, Huang was quoted as saying. Any suspected human case would be quarantined, he said.

China reported this week that at least 2,600 birds were killed by the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a poultry farm in the northern province of Inner Mongolia but the outbreak had been brought under control.

Meanwhile, Taiwan found birds infected with the strain in a container smuggled from China, the island's first case in two years.

The H5N1 strain first surfaced in Hong Kong in 1997 and has killed 61 people in Asia in the past three years.

The World Health Organisation has said that the strain is endemic in poultry in China and across much of Asia, and it may only be a matter of time before it develops the ability to pass easily from human to human.

Earlier this year China reported two outbreaks of bird flu in far-flung western regions of Qinghai and Xinjiang. But it has so far controlled outbreaks with a combination of vaccinations, culling and surveillance.