China Worries Local Doctors Can't Spot Bird Flu
Date: 01-Dec-05
Country: CHINA
Author: Benjamin Kang Lim
Gao Qiang also said Shanghai Pharmaceutical was in talks with Swiss drug giant Roche to obtain the technology to manufacture the anti-viral drug Tamiflu that can be used to treat bird flu infections in people.
"I am not worried about governments at various levels covering up an epidemic," Gao told a news conference.
"But I am worried about the inability of our medical and quarantine personnel at the local level to diagnose and discover epidemics in a timely fashion due to their low abilities and relatively backward equipment."
The H5N1 strain is known to have infected 133 people in Asia since late 2003, killing 68 of them. It remains hard for people to catch, but experts fear it could mutate and become easily passed from person to person, sparking a global pandemic in which millions could die.
China has reported 30 outbreaks in poultry caused by the H5N1 avian flu virus this year in 11 regions and provinces, from the far southwest to the frigid northeast, Gao said.
It has confirmed three cases of bird-to-human infections, two of whom have died. There have been no reports of human-to-human infections.
But many are sceptical because China initially tried in 2003 to cover up the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak which killed hundreds after spreading to the rest of Asia and North America.
China also dragged its feet for about 10 days this month before announcing a toxic spill of 100 tonnes of benzene compounds in the Songhua river following an explosion at a chemical plant in the northeastern province of Jilin.
Gao defended the government, saying official figures announced were "transparent, comprehensive and accurate".
He rejected a report on the Web site of US-based Chinese-language news portal Boxun, www.boxun.com, which listed the names and addresses of 70 people it said were infected in the northeastern province of Liaoning alone, 14 of whom had died.
"Apart from creating social chaos, I can't guess what Boxun's intentions are," Gao said.
China, the world's biggest poultry-producing nation, has culled more than 20 million birds this year in a bid to contain the spread of avian influenza and announced plans to vaccinate billions of birds.
The central government will cover 50 percent of vaccination and culling costs of poultry farmers in central China, 20 percent of those on the eastern coast and 80 percent in the western hinterland, the cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission said on its Web site.
The government has exempted poultry farmers from paying income taxes and agreed to refund value-added taxes. The central bank on Tuesday ordered banks to boost working capital loans for poultry companies and bird flu vaccine makers.
(Additional reporting by Vivi Lin)
