Shenzhen says no further bird flu infections after infant case

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-12-31 21:13

SHENZHEN - No further infections of bird flu have been detected here in southern China, where an 82-day-old baby girl contracted the disease, a city health bureau spokesman said on Wednesday.

The girl, surnamed Chen, was born in Hong Kong. She had been living in Xiabaishi Village, Nanshan District with her grandmother while her parents were working in Hong Kong.

The baby fell ill last Monday and was diagnosed as having the H9N2 bird flu strain on Tuesday in a Hong Kong hospital, the spokesman said.

Experts from the city's health bureau and disease control center went to the village to investigate. They collected blood samples from the baby's grandmother and eight staff members in a local hospital who had contact with the baby. No virus was detected in those samples.

Experts also investigated a restaurant near the patient's home that kept live chickens. No virus was found in blood samples from four staff members of the restaurant.

The disease control center has sterilized the area around the baby's home and the hospital where she sought treatment.

Experts said the H9N2 bird flu strain is less pathogenic than the H5N1 strain.