CHINA> Regional
Emergency response to bird flu ended in N China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-25 16:35

TAIYUAN -- North China's Shanxi Province on Sunday ended the emergency response to human bird flu, a week after a two-year-old girl was confirmed to be infected with the virus.

A Chinese man holds his fighting cockeral on a street in the city of Kaili in China's southwest Guizhou province. North China's Shanxi Province on Sunday ended the emergency response to human bird flu, a week after a two-year-old girl was confirmed to be infected with the virus. [Agencies]

All the 67 people who had close contact with the girl surnamed Peng have been discharged from medical observation as of Saturday night. No one was found to be infected, said a senior official of the provincial health department.

Related readings:
 Fourth death from bird flu reported in China
 N China's bird flu patient out of danger
 Shandong bans poultry breeding to contain bird flu
 16-year-old loses fight with bird flu infection

Peng was out of danger Friday after her vital signs remained stable for six consecutive days.

Peng fell ill on January 7 in central Hunan Province. She was taken to Shanxi by her grandparents on January 11 and was confirmed to be infected with avian influenza on January 17.

Accordingly, Shanxi launched the emergency response. There has been no report of human or animal infections of bird flu since then.

China has reported four human deaths from bird flu so far this year. The first death was a 19-year-old woman in Beijing on January 5, followed by a 27-year-old woman in Shandong on January 17, a 16-year-old boy in Hunan on January 20, and a 31-year-old woman in Xinjiang on January 23.