Success in containing bird flu depends on early detection and prompt reporting of outbreaks among poultry or infections in humans. Both are essential to effective counter measures. Therefore Hong Kong can take some reassurance that it was notified even before confirmation that a 32-year-old man who died on Thursday in hospital in Guangzhou had the deadly H5N1 virus.
The diagnosis is subject to further tests by the National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. It is not known when authorities in Guangdong conducted their own tests on the man, who was admitted to hospital nine days before he died. But according to Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection director Leung Pak-yin, Guangdong reported the case to Beijing and Hong Kong at the same time.
The news is grounds for heightened concern in Hong Kong. It is the first suspected human case of bird flu reported in an urban area of the mainland. It is particularly worrying because Guangzhou is so close and the two-way flow of people so heavy. The threat is getting closer. And as we report today, Director of Health Lam Ping-yan has warned that the risk of bird flu spreading to humans is increasing.
Our health authorities have reacted promptly by drawing up response measures to be implemented should the case be confirmed, as seems likely. The Centre for Health Protection hopes to send a team to Guangzhou to learn more about the case, including the mode of transmission of the virus. Hopefully the mainland authorities will agree to a suggestion by their Hong Kong counterparts that they work on the case together.
Important questions remain unanswered. Apparently the man was a frequent visitor to a Guangzhou wet market and spent long periods near places where chickens were being slaughtered. It was not known yesterday whether they came from farms that supply Hong Kong, or whether they had been vaccinated.
Despite the relative promptness with which Hong Kong was told of the suspected H5N1 death, Fred Li Wah-ming, chairman of the Legislative Council's food safety and environmental hygiene panel, was right to urge the government to appeal to the Guangdong authorities for early disclosure of cases. The man had a fever and pneumonia when he was admitted to hospital. But 10 days passed before it emerged that he had tested positive to H5N1. Guangdong media has been asked not to report on the case until it is confirmed.