China moves to prevent bird flu outbreak after teenager dies

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-07 22:36

BEIJING - Beijing has banned live poultry from other parts of the country from entering the city, two days after a 19-year-old woman died of bird flu.

Only birds with permission from the city's headquarters of animal disease control are allowed to come into the city, according to the headquarters on Wednesday.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture ordered better monitoring of the live poultry trade, and experts have begun to inspect the city's slaughterhouses and poultry farms.

No domestic fowl were kept within 10 km of the Sanjianfangdong Village of the Chaoyang District in Beijing, where the dead woman lived, said municipal officials.

The city government had received no reports of abnormal conditions or events regarding poultry.

A total of 116 people, including the patient's 14 family members and neighbors and 102 medical workers, had been in close contact with the patient. One nurse who had been in contact with the patient suffered from fever. The nurse has recovered.

China has reported the case to the World Health Organization and informed the health authorities of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

The Agriculture Ministry organized experts to carry out a epidemiological survey in farms, poultry markets of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei after the incident. All the 1,800 serum samples and 750 etiological samples were tested negative.

The ministry also asked local authorities to strengthen the poultry examination and disinfection efforts.

Meanwhile, workers disinfected the Yanjiaoxinggong market in Sanhe city, Hebei Province neighboring Beijing, on Wednesday morning. The woman bought nine ducks at the market on December 19.

The market's five shops selling live poultry have been closed.

The Sanhe city government has set up a task force to deal with bird flu prevention, quarantine and market regulation issues.

Health authorities have examined 15 people engaged in the live poultry trade in the market, and all were free of the disease. The authorities also surveyed city residents who had been diagnosed with fever and all poultry farms, and found no problems.

In Tianjin, the suspected origin of the ducks, authorities also started bird flu prevention measures.

Tianjin Municipal Animal Husbandry Bureau deputy director Wang Hongjun said on Wednesday experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and the city have gone to Jixian County to inspect the poultry market. They found no signs of bird flu.

Tianjin's health authorities have set up a team of medical workers to react promptly if there is a bird flu outbreak.