WHO experts arrive in China for H7N9 assessment

GENEVA - A joint mission of experts arrived in China to survey areas affected by H7N9 in Shanghai and Beijing for a week-long assessment of the influenza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

WHO spokesperson Glenn Thomas said the team of 15, including international and Chinese experts in epidemiology, laboratories, clinical management and other areas, will visit a number of sites in both Shanghai and Beijing in order to study the situation and provide recommendations on prevention and control of the disease.

Questions such as the source of the virus, family clusters cases and the mode of transmission will be focused on during the mission.

Thomas said the mission as a concrete example of international cooperation in action and as well as an opportunity for international influenza experts to learn about the latest development and findings about the virus.

He told Xinhua that the choice of Shanghai and Beijing as destinations "is an issue about time," and he said that Shanghai was one of the core areas of the outbreak and that in Beijing they would be more discussions and summarization of findings.

Thomas said that to date there were 87 confirmed cases of human infection with H7N9 virus in China, with 17 deaths. WHO reconfirmed no "easy and sustained person-to-person transmission" had been observed.