China steps up efforts to contain spread of bird 'u

BEIJING — China, criticized for covering up the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, has acted aggressively to contain the spread of a deadly bird H u virus. Millions of birds are being culled, and the military is quarantining affected areas.

Thursday, China reported two new outbreaks of the H5N1 virus in poultry in northeastern Lianoing province, 520 miles northeast of the capital. The virus, which has infected domestic birds across Asia, is blamed for the deaths of 64 people since December 2003.

China’s Agriculture Ministry said 116 people in Lianoing had been quarantined. China also haswarned that counterfeit vaccines for poultrywere being sold in Liaoning and farmers may mistakenly think susceptible chickens, ducks and other birds are inoculated.

In Beijing, all 168 live- bird markets were closed. Military hospitals and four civilian hospitals in the capital were put on alert to isolate fever and respiratory-disease outpatients and prepare for possible human infections, the China Daily reported.

Health of / cials began door- todoor raids in the capital Tuesday, seizing live chickens and ducks.

Despite stepped- up health surveillance for the H5N1 virus, concerns about the spread of the virus have been rising because of China’s segmented system of dealing with the disease.

The Ministry of Agriculture handles epidemics found in poultry. Human epidemics are dealt with by the Ministry of Health. So far, there have been no con / rmed human cases in China. The system doesn’t allowthe Ministry of Health to step in until there are signs the disease is spreading among people, says Yang Gonghuan, vice director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“ The health departments should work synchronously with the agricultural departments once they learn about the outbreak of an epidemic among animals,” Health Minister Gao Qiang emphasized Monday during a national televised conference from Beijing.

An emergency conference was convened after China said Sunday it was reopening the investigation into the death of a 12- year-old girl in the central province of Hunan. Her death originally was blamed on pneumonia. But the Chinese Ministry of Health revised its opinion and the World Health Organization to investigate.

The girl, He Yin, died Oct, 17 after eating a chicken that had fallen ill. The birds in Wantang village were later con / rmed to have the H5N1 strain. The girl’s younger brother and the village teacher were hospitalized with similar symptoms.

Although China promised last month to set up a joint mechanism of the two ministries to control the spread of the disease more effectively, doubts remain about the ef / - ciency and power of authority of the new body. “ This ‘ each rules one’s turf’ prevention- and-control work is not bene / cial to the overall containment of the disease,” says Deng Liwen from the Central Communist Party School, which trains government and party of / cials.

China’s large human and poultry populations increase the risk the virus will mutate to a form that can jump from human to human.

“ We do not know when it will happen, butwe do knowthat itwill happen,” WHO director Jong- Wook Lee told a bird H u summit in Geneva thisweek.

China is home to 14 billion farmed birds, about 20% of the world’s total. The country has suffered seven outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird H u among its farmed poultry this year, Hu Xiaodi, head of the Chinese delegation, told the Geneva summit.

Establishing an early warning system and H u- / ghting plans are likely to be on President Bush’s agenda during his Nov. 19- 21 state visit to China.