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H7N9 cases up in China; WHO warns of serious threat

ROC Central News Agency

2013/05/02 13:26:35

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) China has seen a double-digit increase in the number of confirmed H7N9 bird flu cases over the past week, while a World Health Organization (WHO) official described Wednesday the new avian flu strain as a serious threat to human health.

China's National Health and Family Planning Commission reported that day a further 19 cases of H7N9 infection confirmed between 4 p.m. April 24 and 4 p.m. May 1, bringing the total number to 127.

Twenty-six of the Chinese H7N9 patients had died of the infection, while another 26 had recovered, the Chinese commission said.

To date, H7N9 cases have been reported in two Chinese cities -- Shanghai and Beijing -- and eight provinces -- Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan and Hunan, according to the commission.

While three family clusters have been detected since the first H7N9 cases were reported in China in late March, there is no evidence to date of the deadly virus passing from person to person, the Beijing-based commission said.

The H7N9 strain was unknown in humans until it was identified in sick people in China in March. Scientists in China and other countries said the virus has jumped from birds, most probably chickens, to humans.

Meanwhile, a group of virologists said at a news briefing in London Wednesday that the H7N9 virus has several worrisome characteristics, including two genetic mutations that make human-to-human transmission more likely.

"The longer the virus is unchecked in circulation, the higher the probability that it will start transmitting from person to person," Colin Butte, an expert in avian viruses at Britain's Pirbright Institute, told the briefing.

The infection can lead to severe pneumonia, blood poisoning and organ failure.

Speaking on the same occasion, John McCauley, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza at Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, said the WHO considers the H7N9 virus a serious threat to world health.

While the response to the infection should be calm and measured, he said, it cannot be taken lightly.

Taiwan has issued Level 2 or yellow travel alerts for the 10 Chinese destinations where H7N9 infections have been reported.

Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta said Thursday that the increase in the number of H7N9 cases could slow down along with increasingly warm summer weather in China.

But he said Taiwan should remain very cautious in preventing the virus from spreading in Taiwan.

So far, only one case has been reported in Taiwan, that of a 53-year-old Taiwanese man who tested positive for the H7N9 infection after returning from China. It is the only H7N9 case reported outside China. The man has been receiving treatment in a quarantine ward at National Taiwan University Hospital.

The Central Epidemic Command Center said it will assess whether to remove Beijing from the travel alert list if no new H7N9 cases have been reported as of May 5.

Beijing reported its first and only H7N9 case April 15. According to WHO regulations, any epidemic-affected destination can be taken off the alert list if no new case is reported within 20 days of the last one being confirmed.

(By Lin Ting-yi, Chen Ching-fang, Huang Chi-kuan and Sofia Wu)