China says bird flu prevention measures pay off
The Star, 24 Dec 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By most accounts, it was a tough year for President George W. Bush, marked by a drop in public support for the Iraq war, legislative setbacks on Social Security and arctic oil drilling and a politically disastrous initial response to Hurricane Katrina.

BEIJING (Reuters) - An intensive poultry vaccination campaign and enforced quarantine of bird flu outbreak areas have shown results in China's fight against bird flu, state media said on Friday. 

Only one county out of 31 to have reported the deadly H5N1 strain this year remained under isolation and there had been no new outbreaks for about three weeks, the China Daily quoted chief veterinarian Jia Youling as saying. 

Since October, China had also vaccinated more than 5 billion birds, the newspaper said, which has led to H5N1 being eradicated from the western region of Xinjiang. 

"In the case of Xinjiang, we intensified inoculation of birds in November -- especially on fowl that might have been spared shots earlier," Jia was quoted as saying.  But he warned more cases could be found as the winter progresses and turns into spring, the peak flu season, and said that the government would not let down its guard. 

There have been 141 confirmed human cases of H5N1, all of them in Asia, including six in China. Two people have died from bird flu in China, out of 73 known fatalities in Asia. 

Scientists fear the strain could mutate from a disease which largely affects birds to one that can pass easily between people, leading to a human pandemic. 

China this week began human trials of its homegrown bird flu vaccine with six volunteers receiving shots, according to state media. 

Though the trials will need nine months of tests, initial results were expected within the first three, the Xinhua news agency said.