Local authorities launch awareness campaign By Bao Daozu (China Daily) Updated: 2006-02-28 05:44
Both victims of a recent bird flu infection remained in critical condition
yesterday as local authorities launched campaigns telling villagers to stay away
from sick and dead fowl.
According to the doctor in charge, the 26-year-old woman farmer in East
China's Anhui Province has lost one of her unborn twins.
"We don't know for sure if the H5N1 infection caused the death in the
two-months-pregnant woman," a doctor who identified himself only with the
surname Li told China Daily in a telephone interview.
The woman remained in the No 2 People's Hospital in Fuyang. The medical team
treating her are required to file a daily report to the Ministry of Health, but
the report has not been made public.
In Yingshang County, the woman's home, authorities were busy yesterday
spreading bird flu knowledge among rural residents in about 30 villages.
"We have used television, banners and leaflets to urge villagers to stay away
from sick birds, report suspicious cases and handle the dead chickens in a
sanitary way," Sun Wei, an official with the county government, said yesterday
by telephone.
"We have dispatched 15 inspection teams to the villages to ensure a new round
of inoculations on new-born chickens."
The government has required that farmers keep their fowl indoors and has put
stricter restrictions on fowl market, reducing the possibility of chickens'
being infected by migratory birds.
In East China's Zhejiang Province, authorities have been monitoring
constantly to prevent a possible outbreak in the province where a human
infection was reported on Saturday.
A 9-year-old girl, surnamed You, in Dakeng Village of Anji County was
reported as still in critical condition yesterday. The girl was confirmed on
Saturday to have been infected with the H5N1 virus.
(China Daily 02/28/2006 page2)
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