A total of 21 people in China have now been infected with the H7N9 bird flu virus, according to Chinese officials, and six have died, all in the eastern part of the country.
BEIJING — China reported three more cases of human infection of a new strain of bird flu on Sunday, raising the total number of cases to 21.
Six of those who contracted the H7N9 virus have died. All 21 cases have been reported in the eastern part of the country.
Health officials believe people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported two new cases in Shanghai and one in east China's Anhui Province on Sunday, citing local authorities.
A senior Chinese health official said Sunday the country can control the outbreak. China has said it is mobilizing resources nationwide to combat the new strain of bird flu, monitoring hundreds of close contacts of confirmed cases and culling tens of thousands of birds where traces of the virus were found.
"We are confident we can effectively control it (H7N9)," the head of China's National Health and Family Planning Commission Li Bin told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Health Organization-backed event in Beijing.
Li did not elaborate, but she is the most senior Chinese health official yet to publicly comment on the subject.
Shanghai has been ordered by the agriculture ministry to halt its live poultry trade and slaughter all fowl in markets where the virus has been found.
The capital cities of the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu also have suspended sales of live poultry. Both provinces have reported H7N9 cases.
The bird flu outbreak has caused global concern and some Chinese internet users and newspapers have questioned why it took so long for the government to announce the new cases, especially as two of the victims fell ill in February.
The government has said it needed time to correctly identify the virus.
The WHO's representative to China, Dr. Michael O'Leary, repeated that no evidence of transmission between humans has been found and praised China for its efforts to determine the source of the virus.
"I'm very impressed with the action of the laboratories in this regard," O'Leary said at a World Health Day event in the Chinese capital.
"China is demonstrating their ability to get on top of this problem quickly," he said.
In 2003, authorities initially tried to cover up an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China and killed about 10 percent of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Other strains of bird flu, such as H5N1, have been circulating for many years and can be transmitted from bird to bird, and bird to human, but not generally from human to human.`
BEIJING — China reported three more cases of human infection of a new strain of bird flu on Sunday, raising the total number of cases to 21.Six of those who contracted the H7N9 virus have died. All 21 cases have been reported in the eastern part of the country.
Health officials believe people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there's no evidence the virus is spreading easily between people.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported two new cases in Shanghai and one in east China's Anhui Province on Sunday, citing local authorities.
A senior Chinese health official said Sunday the country can control the outbreak. China has said it is mobilizing resources nationwide to combat the new strain of bird flu, monitoring hundreds of close contacts of confirmed cases and culling tens of thousands of birds where traces of the virus were found.
"We are confident we can effectively control it (H7N9)," the head of China's National Health and Family Planning Commission Li Bin told Reuters on the sidelines of a World Health Organization-backed event in Beijing.
Li did not elaborate, but she is the most senior Chinese health official yet to publicly comment on the subject.
Shanghai has been ordered by the agriculture ministry to halt its live poultry trade and slaughter all fowl in markets where the virus has been found.
The capital cities of the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu also have suspended sales of live poultry. Both provinces have reported H7N9 cases.
The bird flu outbreak has caused global concern and some Chinese internet users and newspapers have questioned why it took so long for the government to announce the new cases, especially as two of the victims fell ill in February.
The government has said it needed time to correctly identify the virus.
The WHO's representative to China, Dr. Michael O'Leary, repeated that no evidence of transmission between humans has been found and praised China for its efforts to determine the source of the virus.
"I'm very impressed with the action of the laboratories in this regard," O'Leary said at a World Health Day event in the Chinese capital.
"China is demonstrating their ability to get on top of this problem quickly," he said.
In 2003, authorities initially tried to cover up an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China and killed about 10 percent of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Other strains of bird flu, such as H5N1, have been circulating for many years and can be transmitted from bird to bird, and bird to human, but not generally from human to human.`
![Bird flu China: A public park staff carries a cage to catch pigeons with at a public area in People Square, downtown Shanghai Saturday. Shanghai municipal government has ordered workers to remove pigeons from public area to prevent the spread of H7N9 bird flu to humans, local media reported.]({"default":"http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/3e/bb6a4f6ec52d2da13d10e5f87c6bdd_h366_w650_m6_lfalse.jpg"} "Bird flu China: A public park staff carries a cage to catch pigeons with at a public area in People Square, downtown Shanghai Saturday. Shanghai municipal government has ordered workers to remove pigeons from public area to prevent the spread of H7N9 bird flu to humans, local media reported. (Reuters: Aly Song )")
