No need yet for ban on live poultry from China, says expert - yet disease still spreading
Health experts say limiting shipments to Hong Kong not necessary to slow spread of H7N9; Beijing reports mainland’s 45th death from flu virus
A top mainland respiratory disease expert rejected the need for a ban on live poultry shipments to Hong Kong to prevent the spread of H7N9 yesterday after Guangdong confirmed its first human case of the bird flu strain last week.
Hours after Dr Zhong Nanshan, a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spoke, Beijing last night confirmed the 45th death from the virus.
There is not enough of a foundation to halt the chicken supply at this stage
The patient infected in Guangdong - a 51-year-old poultry worker from the Huizhou, northeast of Hong Kong - was in stable condition yesterday after she was transferred on Saturday to the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease, headed by Zhong.
"There is not enough of a foundation to halt the chicken supply at this stage," Zhong said at a meeting in Guangzhou with experts from Hong Kong and Macau, after studying the latest patient's case.
His opinion was echoed by Hong Kong and Guangdong health officials.
The deadly strain of bird flu hit the Yangtze River Delta in February. Experts say the strain is more likely to eventually be transmitted between humans than other known bird-flu virus.
The disease has infected at least 134 people, killing 45.