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China steps up bird flu surveillance
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-21 20:12
China stepped up surveillance procedures against bird
flu and vowed to fully cooperate with the international community as it
considered an emergency stockpile of anti-flu drugs.
A Thai livestock official tests a duck at a farm in Nakhon
Prathom province, south of Bangkok, on Wednesday. A farmer died from bird
flu after contact with infected poultry, taking the country's death toll
from the virus to 13, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said
yesterday. |
A senior Chinese official warned Thursday that the country faced a "grave"
threat from avian flu after reporting its first outbreak in two months, at a
farm in Inner Mongolia where 2,600 birds died, with 91,000 culled.
Health Minister Gao Qiang met with David Nabarro, the United Nations envoy
tasked with monitoring the advance of avian flu around the world, in Beijing and
pledged full transparency and cooperation.
"The international community needs to cooperate fully to protect the health
of the world's people, and create an efficient united front to battle the
international spread of influenza," he was cited as saying on the ministry
website.
"The Chinese health ministry is willing to strengthen cooperation and
communication with the United Nations and World Health Organisation ...
"To step up a transparent, timely, accurate and all-around communication on
epidemic diseases, and ... improve the surveillance technology and networks of
Chinese laboratories."
Gao will travel to Canada and Japan from Saturday to attend bird flu
meetings.
In a sign of China's willingness to cooperate, it signed a deal Friday with
Hong Kong and Macau health officials to coordinate responses to outbreaks of
infectious disease such as bird flu.
Under the agreement, all three sides must immediately inform each other when
any major health emergency occurs. A joint response team has also been formed to
handle any crisis.
President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have issued a directive for an
all-out effort to prevent the spread of the virus, Xinhua news agency said.
At a State Council meeting, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu called for government
departments to focus on prevention and improve emergency mechanisms to deal with
any outbreaks.
"The risks of the outbreak of the disease should not be overlooked, and the
arduousness and the complex nature of the work involved should never be
underestimated," he said.
In Shanghai, quarantine authorities have banned imports of poultry products
from bird flu-stricken countries and regions and are destroying any that arrive,
Xinhua said.
The country, meanwhile, is pondering stockpiling the anti-flu drug Tamiflu in
case the virus mutates into a strain transmitted from human to human, the China
Daily reported.
"We are putting more and more efforts into vaccine and detection research,"
said health ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an.
China has battled at least four outbreaks of bird flu this year, although
there have been no human infections so far.
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