Echoes of Sars in bird flu panic

Ten years since Sars incubated in China and sent shockwaves around the world, another deadly new disease, H7N9 bird flu, is fuelling fear across the nation.

The similarities in its sudden appearance and spread, and the questionable response of authorities to H7N9, have people wondering whether the lessons have been learned from severe acute respiratory syndrome - which killed about 800 people around the world after it emerged from the mainland. Those decade-old lessons could prove vital in this new battle with a frequently fatal but lesser-known virus.

Many of those already caught up in the outbreak - patients, their families and poultry industry workers - are not optimistic. The authorities could be doing more, they say, adding that the fact the virus does not appear to be spreading from person to person at the moment is luck, rather than good management.

In December 2002 in Guangdong, where Sars originated, some residents were already sending text messages to friends about a mysterious new virus, but the authorities covered up the epidemic until March 2003. And, as also occurred this year, the country's new leadership took office early in March.

The H7N9 outbreak seems to have followed a path similar to that of Sars. The first H7N9 patient, an 87-year-old man in Shanghai, was admitted to hospital on February 19 and died on March 4.

On February 26, a sample from the patient was sent to a laborator authorised to deal with high-risk biological samples in the Jinshan district of Shanghai, a facility designed to trace unknown and dangerous viruses.

The sample was confirmed on March 1 as being of a new but unknown influenza virus. The H7N9 virus was extracted from the sample on March 10, an expert with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, Li Feng , was quoted as saying by the Nanfang Weekly.