The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has declared success in the
first stage of the fight against highly pathogenic avian influenza
(HPAI), or bird flu.
Jia Youling, MOA spokesman for HPAI Control, made the
announcement on Tuesday at a press conference sponsored by the
State Council Information Office.
Quarantine was lifted Tuesday from affected areas in Nanning,
south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Lhasa, capital
of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. All 49 areas affected
since the first outbreak was confirmed on January 27 have now been
cleared, said Jia.
No new cases in birds have been reported in the past 29 days,
nor have there been any cases of human infection, the MOA spokesman
stressed.
Bird flu hit 16 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions in
China between January 27 and March 16. The central authorities
reacted promptly, establishing the National HPAI Prevention and
Control Headquarters, Jia said.
During the campaign, China worked together with the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and had assistance from the FAO,
WHO and other international organizations.
The Ministry of Commerce has provided US$450,000 in aid for the
six ASEAN countries, while the MOA has provided bird flu prevention
materials to Vietnam and Thailand, he said.
China promised the member nations to open the state bird flu
reference laboratory and help them to train technicians. ASEAN
countries will provide virus strains and gene sequencing to
China.
China also provided four living virus strains to the WHO. These
have been separated in Hong Kong and will be helpful in producing a
human-use vaccine.
Meanwhile, the country has cooperated with ASEAN to establish
joint epidemic reporting and technical cooperation systems.
Nevertheless, the spokesman said, the situation remains grave.
Because the disease still exists in some countries near China, the
risk of it reentering China via migratory birds or transport of
domestic fowl remains. Aggravating the situation is the fact that
many places in China still suffer from very poor conditions for
disease control.
Vigilance must be maintained, said the spokesman, and no effort
should be spared in preventing and controlling the disease.
The Ministry of Agriculture calls on animal husbandry and
veterinary authorities to follow up with the plans of the National
HPAI Prevention and Control Headquarters and report on their
experiences of the past few weeks to assist in combating the
epidemic.
(China.org.cn March 16, 2004)