China confirms bird flu death in 2003

China Daily ^ | 10-08-2006 | China Daily

[nickcarraway]

The Chinese Ministry of Health has confirmed on Aug 8 that the country's first human case of H5N1 bird flu occurred two years earlier than previously thought, in November 2003.

A letter published by eight Chinese scientists on June 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine said that the bird flu virus had been isolated in a 24-year-old man who died in Beijing in 2003.

The man, surnamed Shi, became ill with pneumonia and respiratory disease in November 2003 and died four days after being hospitalized. China was then in the aftermath of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and the case was initially thought to be a SARS case. However, lab tests for SARS proved negative.

Parallel laboratory tests, carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, later confirmed that it was a human case of bird flu.

"This is the first human case confirmed on the Chinese mainland and the first human infection confirmed in the world in the current H5N1 virus cycle," said Roy Wadia, WHO Beijing office spokesman.

Before the case was revealed, China's first official human case of bird flu was thought to have occurred in Nov 2005. Nineteen human cases have been confirmed since then, including 12 deaths.

The ministry has made contact with the eight scientists, said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the ministry.

"In accordance with World Health Organisation and China's diagnostic standards for human avian influenza, parallel laboratory tests are needed for further confirmation," Mao said.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting the tests, and the ministry will keep the WHO updated, added Mao.

Mao said China will report to the WHO when the test results are out.

[lilylangtree]

Hmmmm! Wonder if this man was a human guina pig for a biological weapon experimented with by China?