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Bird flu outbreak still serious in Liaoning
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-11-09 15:02
China warned a bird flu outbreak in northeastern Liaoning province had not
yet been controlled and could become a disaster, mainly due to the use of fake
and shoddy poultry vaccines.
"In Heishan county, Liaoning province, the epidemic is still serious,"
Agriculture Minister Du Qingling told the China News Service, two weeks after
poultry started dying from the bird flu there.
"Efforts to wipe out the disease have been very difficult and the prevention
work is arduous."
Over six million chickens, ducks and geese have been culled in the province
since the outbreak, which was officially reported to the World Health
Organisation on November 3.
Du slammed producers of low-quality vaccines that were being sold in
Liaoning, saying such products could ruin government efforts to eradicate the
H5N1 bird flu virus.
"The use of fake and shoddy vaccines will result in a disaster," Du said.
"If the vaccines are not up to standard, then immunization to the virus will
not be uniform or effective. This could bring huge losses."
Farms in the region were highly concentrated, he said, meaning that any
problems in vaccinating poultry could result in the epidemic spreading.
"If we miss the chance to exterminate the virus in the early stages, then the
difficulty in wiping it out will increase by several times as will the spread of
the epidemic," Du said.
"We must fully recognize that at present there is a possibility that the
epidemic will spread and expand. This is not an exaggeration just to scare
people."
Health authorities fear the bird flu could kill millions of people worldwide
if the virus increases its capacity to jump the species barrier from birds to
humans, and becomes an easily transissible human flu.
The bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003.
Although no human cases of the bird flu have been documented in China, the
World Health Organization is currently investigating whether three Chinese, one
of whom has died, caught the disease in central Hunan province last month.
Du said the three outbreaks other than Liaoning -- in Hunan, Inner Mongolia
and Anhui -- were all under control, describing the situations there as "rather
good."
The government has allocated 10 million dollars to fight the disease in
Liaoning and ordered police and the military to help in the cull.
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