BEIJING, April 14 (Reuters) – Two people in the central
Chinese province of Henan have been infected by a new strain of
avian influenza, the first cases found in the region and
bringing the total number nationwide to 51, Xinhua state news
agency said on Sunday.
One of the victims, a 34-year old man in the city of
Kaifeng, is now critically ill in hospital, while the other, a
65-year old farmer from Zhoukou, is stable. The two cases do not
appear to be connected.
A total of 19 people in close contact with the two victims
were under observation but had shown no signs of infection,
Xinhua said.
On Saturday, the China Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention confirmed that a seven year-old child in the capital
of Beijing had been infected by the H7N9 bird flu virus, the
first case to be reported outside of eastern China, where the
new strain emerged last month.
The child’s parents work in the poultry trade.
Investigators are trying to ascertain the source amid fears
that it could cause a deadly pandemic similar to Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, which killed about one in
10 of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
But authorities say there is still no indication of
human-to-human transmission of the virus, which has already
killed 11 people in Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang,
Jiangsu and Anhui.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Nick Macfie)
