28.06.2005

An outbreak of avian influenza in western China's Qinghai province may spread to other provinces and possibly other countries, carried by migratory birds that have the virus, two United Nations teams said in Beijing.
Five thousand birds on an island in a Qinghai nature reserve have died from the virus since early May, according to officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) who visited the area since last week [The death toll is five times the 1,000 birds previously announced by the Chinese government - N.E]. ``This is the first time we've seen large numbers of migratory birds dying from avian influenza, Our recommendations for wild birds are sampling as many species as possible (and) the tracking and tagging to provide early warning," said Julie Hall, the WHO official in charge of communicable diseases in China "But this window of opportunity is narrow: two to three months, since by September most species of birds in the area would have begun their annual migration" she said at a joint press briefing with the FAO. Health workers have two to three months before migration begins in August to determine whether birds on the island are carriers capable of infecting species in other areas, Hall said. ``There is limited tagging and understanding of where they migrate to,'' she said.
The WHO is concerned that H5N1, a virus strain that killed migratory birds in Qinghai, may mutate into a strain easily transmissible between humans, and is urging China to sample other species in the area. The Geneva-based arm of the United Nations also wants China to share the gene sequence for the virus that killed the birds in Qinghai to determine whether it's different or more threatening to humans than strains found elsewhere in the region (Bloomberg).