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China to vaccinate entire poultry stock
(AP/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-16 06:30
On Monday, a six-member WHO team joined Chinese experts in Hunan and Beijing
for field investigation and laboratory tests.
Vice-Health Minister Wang Longde arrived in Liaoning Province, where a woman
who had close contact with dead chickens has developed pneumonia. The woman is
in hospital and experts have not been able to determine what caused her illness.
Wang is in the Northeast China province for strengthening supervision and
control measures against possible poultry-to-human transmission of the virus.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, government officials in Ho Chi Minh City and the
capital Hanoi have warned farmers to kill or sell all poultry by Monday. They
will be compensated at half the current market value if they act now, but birds
found alive after the deadline will be destroyed with no compensation, officials
said.
"We hope that clearing out live poultry in the city will help minimize the
chances of people getting sick from bird flu," said Huynh Hu Loi, director of Ho
Chi Minh City's animal health department. "A pandemic can happen anytime. We are
doing all we can."
The campaign is one of the most extreme measures taken in the country to try
to slow the H5N1 virus. Vietnam has experienced a surge in poultry outbreaks
over the past few weeks. The latest human death was reported last week.
On Tuesday, China said it would also ship 45 tons of bird flu vaccine to
Vietnam.
International health experts have warned that the bird flu virus could mutate
into a form easily spread among humans, igniting a global pandemic. So far, most
human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has encouraged countries to
vaccinate birds while practicing other control methods, such as mass
slaughtering and the controlled movement of poultry in and around infected
areas.
In Indonesia, European Union Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou urged the
international community on Tuesday to help the cash-strapped country vaccinate
poultry and kill infected birds to fight the disease.
On Monday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia doesn't have the
funds to compensate farmers for destroying their flocks.
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