China in the throes of bird flu battles

China in the throes of bird flu battles

After the fourth human infection of bird flu was reported in China on 23rd November, experts are still baffled about the source of the malaise, since the victim comes from a region where no eruption of the disease in animals has been observed or noted.

The 10 year old girl was found to be infected with the potentially fatal H5N1 virus (avian influenza) of bird flu on 23rd November. She lives in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which was the starting point of poultry infections last year on January 27th, but has been free of any eruptions this year.

However, during investigations, experts from the Ministry of Health and WHO have established that the girl had been in extreme proximity with domesticated poultry a couple of weeks before she developed symptoms. However, it is not known where the animals were and whether they were infected. In an attempt to delineate explanations for her contracting the virus, experts have come up with some probable causes.

One theory emphasizes that the Guangxi Zhuang region shares its border with the Hunan Province, which has been ridden with the troubling disease throughout the current year. Hence, the permeation of infection across borders. In Hunan, where two children were infected, one dead and the other saved, it was discovered that they had been vulnerably close to either ill or dead birds.

When bird deaths in home backyards are few in number, establishing the cause as bird flu is not easy, but humans who come too close with these birds might contract the virus. Maybe that was the case with the 10 year old fourth victim. This moots the point that though it is best that bird infections are recognized prior to human contact, sporadic and island infections on small scales cannot always be detected easily and in time. Moreover, if the birds are not vaccinated sufficiently they may carry the virus in a dormant condition and still pass on infection to humans who come into proximity. In such cases, humans come down with the illness first, followed by the mass bird deaths.

For instance, two victims of Anhui County who expired after getting infected with H5N1, belonged to regions which were clean of any eruption in birds yet both people were close to ill or dead birds before they died.

Additionally, the virus is not known to pass on from one human to another, so the only source can be a bird.

In a recent seminar on the dreaded disease in Asia, Vice-Premier Hui Liangyuu insisted that united co-operation amongst all nations is crucial to ward off the monstrous proportions of the problem. A minimum of 69 people have succumbed to the virus in Asia till now. Scientists dread that a mutating virus could transgress global borders and catapult the disease into a worldwide epidemic. Attempts are on to create a vaccine for treatment and control of the fearful illness.

With respect to the same, the WHO has appealed to nations across the globe to encourage investment towards creation of the effective vaccine. The governments especially need to pull up their socks and join efforts with the pharma industry.

The WHO has also suggested other measures the Chinese government specifically needs to take; one perhaps being the closure of the conventional poultry hubs, in order to stall the infection from spreading. Beijing has already implemented such steps and they need to be replicated across the nation.

The poultry segment of China's economy, though a small part of GDP, holds immense significance for rural sectors. Therefore, it is important that awareness and open dialogue amongst farmers, local authorities and global units is consistently maintained.

Simultaneously, since three out of four instances in China were in regions where prior eruption of the disease in birds was not seen, the need to educate people about potential contact situations is of utmost significance.