Bird flu threat puts Yunnan on alert
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-30 14:22

Yunnan Province in southwest China will designate seven hospitals and two labs to monitor possible bird flu outbreaks in the province, an official said here on Sunday.

A health worker vaccinates a chicken in Xiangtan, Central China's Hunan Province Thursday October 27, 2005.  [Xinhua]

The surveillance work will mainly target the people who have raised, sold, slaughtered, processed or gave medical treatment to sick or dead poultry, those who killed and handled sick or dead poultry without proper protective measures, those who have contacted the excrement of the sick or dead poultry, and those who live in an environment polluted by the excrement of poultry.

The people who have lived together with patients suspected or confirmed to contact with flu or bird flu, taken care of the patients or contacted with the secretion, excrement and body fluid of the patients will also be put under surveillance.

The surveillance results will be reported to the provincial disease prevention and control center on a daily basis.

When a bird flu case is reported, the seven hospitals will provide medical help to those living within a radius of three kilometers from the epidemic center.

All data of the surveillance will be put into an online information system, according to the center.

The two bird flu monitoring labs will be established in the provincial disease prevention and control center and the disease prevention and control center of the Hani-Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Honghe.

The labs will be responsible for timely separating and identifying the flu virus.

Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang said at a ministerial-level international meeting in Canada earlier this week that China had set up 192 flu monitoring stations nationwide. The ministry will send doctors and experts to assess the health of local people if amonitoring station reports evidence of a bird flu outbreak.

Yunnan shares the same border with Vietnam, which is facing a high risk of large bird flu outbreaks. Experts in the province have called on the local people not to be overreactive or panic to bird flue.