On Friday Chinese health officials reiterated that China was not
covering up human cases of bird flu as has been suggested by a
number of Western media news reports which cast doubt on China's
bird flu data.
Each confirmed human case of bird flu in China had been made
public and the release of the information has been timely, open and
transparent, said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of
Health.
He said in an interview with Xinhua that the majority of human
cases of bird flu were?contracted before outbreaks in poultry
or migratory birds had been confirmed.
Mao emphasized that the vastness of China and the fact that
local medical services were varied around the country in terms of
awareness, detection and treatment made it difficult to track the
outbreaks.?
The ministry has been urging local authorities to strengthen
reporting, testing and screening of cases of pneumonia of an
unknown cause and to be very cautious in ruling out bird flu, he
told Xinhua.
"Most local medical institutes where people with bird flu are
first treated were slow in reporting to health authorities and
therefore we must first raise their awareness,” he said. “That is a
priority."?
In a statement released on the ministry's website on Tuesday
there’s a request for local institutes to directly report
suspicious cases of pneumonia through the nationwide network and
inform local health authorities immediately. ?
In a report in the Asian edition of the US-based Wall Street
Journal on Thursday doubts were expressed about China's bird flu
data. The report suggested some officials might be concealing
suspected cases and that the death toll in China is likely to be
higher than the official figure of 12.
"We must clarify that China has not been concealing any
confirmed or suspected human cases of bird flu since the first case
occurred in November of last year," Mao said.
China has reported 18 human cases of bird flu 12 of which have
resulted in fatalities. The latest case is an eight-year pupil in
southwest China's Sichuan Province who is being treated in a local
hospital. News of her illness was revealed yesterday, the day it
was confirmed by authorities, which was 11 days after she
contracted the disease.
The World Health Organization has recorded 205 human cases of
bird flu resulting in 113 deaths by April 27. Experts have warned
the virus could mutate into a form which could pass between people
and cause a pandemic.
(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2006)