China denies blame for bird flu outbreak<\/p>\n
Agencies, Bangkok\/Geneva<\/p>\n
China, accused of deceiving the world over SARS, denied on
\nThursday a similar cover-up that allowed the bird flu scourge to
\nsweep across Asia.<\/p>\n
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said the
\naccusation made in the British weekly New Scientist \"is
\ncompletely inaccurate, is without proof and moreover does not
\nrespect science\".<\/p>\n
The New Scientist report quoted experts as saying they
\nsuspected the new strain of bird flu, which could be greater
\nthreat than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), also began
\nin China, probably in the first half of 2003.<\/p>\n
\"A combination of official cover-up and questionable farming
\npractices allowed it to turn into the epidemic now under way,\"
\nthe weekly magazine said.<\/p>\n
Bird flu has spread to 10 countries from Japan to Pakistan and
\nincluding China, forcing the destruction of millions of birds and
\nkilling at least eight people.<\/p>\n
The outbreaks have raised fears the bird flu virus could mix
\nwith human influenza and form a new deadly disease that could
\npass directly from person to person.<\/p>\n
While experts do not know how the virus has spread across the
\nregion so quickly, suspicion has fallen on migratory birds.<\/p>\n
New Scientist said a decision by China's poultry producers to
\nvaccinate birds after an outbreak in Hong Kong in 1997 may have
\nbeen a mistake and could have contributed to the problem.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong conducted a mass slaughter of chickens when the H5N1
\nbird flu killed six people. To protect their poultry Chinese
\nproducers later vaccinated them with an inactivated H5N1 virus.<\/p>\n
\"We are aware of samples taken early last year that turned out
\nto be this strain exactly,\" Klaus Stohr of the World Heath
\nOrganization (WHO) said.<\/p>\n
Although Stohr would not say where the early samples came
\nfrom, New Scientist said comments from other experts suggested
\nChina was the origin.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a World Health Organization spokesman said in
\nGeneva on Thursday that the unsafe culling of poultry to fight
\nthe spread of bird flu may increase the risk of the virus
\nmutating into a strain that can be transmitted from person to
\nperson,<\/p>\n
The WHO has warned that while humans have so far only caught
\nthe disease through contact with infected birds or their
\ndroppings, it could claim millions of lives if it mutates into a
\nform that can be passed among humans -- a risk that rises with
\nthe more people who fall ill.<\/p>\n
\"If (the killing of birds) is done in such a way that exposes
\nmore people, then this ... could be increasing the risk of
\ndeveloping a strain that you would not want to see,\" said Dick
\nThompson, the WHO spokesman.<\/p>\n
\"From what we can see ... many of these culling workers are
\nnot wearing the right personal protection equipment, we are also
\nunsure how many of these people have been vaccinated against
\n(normal) influenza,\" he told AFP.<\/p>\n
The virus, which has swept through 10 Asian countries, has so
\nfar led to the deaths or culling of more than 20 million poultry.
\nBut it has claimed just 10 human lives in Vietnam and Thailand.<\/p>\n
A sequence of factors must happen for the deadly H5N1 strain
\nof bird flu to mutate into a form that can pass from human to
\nhuman, Thompson explained.<\/p>",
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