Guangdong authorities said yesterday they were unsure whether the death of a bird flu victim in Shenzhen was related to migratory birds, changing their tone a day after they described a wetland park visited by the victim as 'highly suspicious'.
Media reports last night, meanwhile, said the Shenzhen Centre for Disease Control and Prevention had found genetic mutations in the virus that infected the victim. But the mutated virus was not transmissible between humans. Hong Kong's government information service could not confirm the reports.
He Jianfeng, from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Guangdong, told Xinhua he was not yet able to determine how the 39-year-old bus driver, only identified as Chen, contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus, although Chen went for regular morning jogs at the wetland park, Waterlands Resort.
'There are two channels for humans to be infected with bird flu: through poultry and migratory birds. At the moment there is no solid evidence to prove Chen had contact with poultry or birds,' He said.
Investigators could not question Chen because he was in a coma before he died, He said. Chen's widow said he mostly stayed at home in the five days before he fell sick. She told the authorities she had no idea what Chen ate for lunch during that time, but he did not have poultry for his dinners - which she had cooked.
Chen had killed and cooked a chicken a month before he died, but He said that could not be the source of contagion because the incubation period of bird flu was not that long.