RBY's test kit would do wonders in China, here is the latest...

RBY's test kit would do wonders in China, here is the latest media release...

Chinese bird flu death reported
From correspondents in Beijing
30dec05
CHINA has announced overnight the country's seventh human case of bird flu and third fatality from the H5N1 virus.

The victim was a 41-year-old factory worker surnamed Zhou in Sanming city in the eastern province of Fujian, Xinhua news agency said. The victim had been taken to hospital on December 8 after showing symptoms of fever and pneumonia and died on December 21.

Initial samples taken from her tested negative but further tests showed positive results for the H5N1 virus.

"Zhou has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Chinese government," the Chinese health ministry said.

People who had close contact with Zhou were under medical observation but none of them so far had shown any abnormal symptoms, it said.

The health ministry said no outbreak of bird flu had been detected among poultry in the area, and there was no indication in the agency report of how she contracted the disease.

With the latest case, China has reported seven human infections of bird flu, including three fatalities, and 31 outbreaks among poultry this year.

China's previous most recent confirmed human case of bird flu was in the neighbouring province of Jiangxi on December 16, identified as a 35-year-old man surnamed Guo.

Mr Guo, who fell ill on December 4 with fever and symptoms of pneumonia, was being treated at a local hospital.

While Mr Guo was the first human bird flu case in Jiangxi reported by China, he lived near the border with Hunan province, where at least one human case of bird flu has been detected in recent weeks.

Two other cases, both women who later died, have been confirmed in east China's Anhui province, which also borders Jiangxi.

One further human case has been confirmed in Liaoning province in the northeast and one in Guangxi region in the south.

Despite the toll, China is seen as having escaped relatively lightly from the bird flu virus, which has killed more than 70 people throughout Asia since 2003.

Even so, China is seen as a potential flashpoint for a feared global pandemic because it has the world's biggest poultry population combined with often primitive farming conditions where humans and animals live in close proximity.

The government announced last month it intended to vaccinate its entire poultry industry against bird flu and earlier this month began human trials of a bird flu vaccine.

The World Health Organisation has previously called on China to change its farming practices as a long-term way to prevent outbreaks of deadly bird flu.

Shigeru Omi, director for the Western Pacific region said that the common practice in China of raising different kinds of animals together and living in close proximity to animals must change.

"We cannot kill all the chickens and ducks to prevent bird flu from spreading among them and to humans, therefore we have to make sure the chickens, ducks and humans do not mingle together," Mr Omi said.

Segregation is one of the most important ways to prevent the spread of the virus, Mr Omi, who was visiting China, told Xinhua