China reports possible bird flu cases

BEIJING – China said Sunday it had asked for outside help to test three possible cases of bird flu in people, while scientists and government representatives prepared for a strategy session in Geneva amid fears of a possible worldwide flu pandemic among humans.

China said it asked the World Health Organization to help determine whether the bird flu virus caused the death of a 12-year-old girl and infected her 9-year-old brother and a 36-year-old middle school teacher in Wantang, a village in central Hunan province.

If confirmed, they would be China’s first known human cases of the disease, which has killed at least 62 people across Southeast Asia since 2003.

“The possibility of human infection of the highly deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu cannot be ruled out,” the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing an unnamed health ministry spokesman.

The three came down with pneumonia last month following a bird flu outbreak among poultry in their village, Xinhua said.

The girl’s brother and the teacher recovered. Chinese officials initially said the girl and her brother tested negative for the bird flu virus.

Final results on China’s suspected cases could take weeks, said Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in Beijing.

“The testing is actually complex,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out exactly what support we can offer China.”

Wadia said it was not unusual for someone believed to be infected with a virus such as H5N1 to initially test negative but later test positive.

In a separate outbreak, officials have destroyed 6 million farm birds in 15 villages in China’s northeast in an effort to contain the virus, news reports said.

China has had four outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu among poultry in the past three weeks, but there have been no confirmed human deaths.

Since late 2003, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia and jumped from birds to humans. Most of the human deaths have been linked to close contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed among humans and spark a global pandemic.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, addressing a national anti-flu meeting by video link, called for tougher controls against bird flu, declaring it the number one killer of Chinese poultry and “a major threat to public health and security,” Xinhua reported.

A series of meetings throughout the world are culminating in a three-day strategy session starting today in Geneva. More than 300 scientists, public health experts, veterinarians and government officials are expected to share what they have learned and plan the next steps.