China Sees Another Flu Outbreak

Virulent H5N1 Strain Confirmed; New Vietnam Outbreaks Reported

(CBS/AP)  The Chinese government Monday reported a new case of bird flu in poultry in the country's east, while experts from the World Health Organization traveled to central China to investigate whether the virus killed a 12-year-old girl there.

The latest poultry outbreak was first reported Nov. 6 when 800 birds died in Huainan, a city in Anhui province, China Central Television said. It was confirmed on Monday to be the virulent H5N1 strain that has killed at least 64 people in Asia since 2003, mostly through contact with infected birds.

Some 126,000 poultry within two miles of the affected area were slaughtered as a precaution, the news report said.

It was the second time in the last month that Anhui has reported an epidemic in its poultry. The last one was confirmed Oct. 24 in the city of Tianchang, where 2,100 geese and chickens were found dead of the virus.

China has not confirmed any new human cases of bird flu, but authorities have warned that infections among people are inevitable if outbreaks among the country's vast poultry flocks cannot be controlled. Experts also fear H5N1 could mutate into a form that is easily passed from human to human and spark a pandemic.

In related developments:

The Japanese government will shut down schools, ban large gatherings and declare a state of emergency if the country is hit by a severe flu epidemic, the government said in an action plan announced Monday. Tokyo will also stockpile antiviral drugs and help chicken farmers control bird flu in their flocks, it said.

In Thailand, a 1 1/2-year-old boy became the 21st person to catch the H5N1 bird flu virus, but he was recovering in a hospital, a senior health ministry official said. The boy lived in a house in Minburi, where three fighting cocks and a chicken also lived, said Dr. Thawat Suntarajarn, director-general of the Department of Communicable Disease Control. The birds died soon after the boy was taken to a hospital with flu symptoms, he told The Associated Press.

Kuwait detected two cases of bird flu in birds, a senior official said Thursday. Tests found the birds were infected with the H5 flu strain.The Food and Agriculture Organization said more testing of Kuwait's bird flu cases was needed.

The head of the European Union's disease prevention agency said Thursday the risk of bird flu outbreaks has receded in Europe, but warned a second wave of the deadly H5N1 strain is likely when migrating birds return next spring. "I think this virus was brought to Europe by the migrating birds, and quite likely they have already gone further," said Zsaid Zsuzsanna, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

The National Institutes of Health's infectious disease chief told a Senate panel Wednesday that research suggests the U.S. could stretch its limited supply of bird-flu vaccine. Doctor Anthony Fauci says preliminary testing in 96 people showed that adding the immune-boosting chemical dramatically lowered the required vaccine dose.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday estimated that developing vaccines and boosting production of antivirals to fight a flu pandemic will cost about $500 million over the next three to four years. The cost will be in addition to the $1 billion that the World Bank said would be needed to control the current bird flu outbreak and prepare for a possible human pandemic.

Vietnam said Wednesday the Swiss maker of Tamiflu has agreed to let the country produce the antiviral medicine early next year, and a U.N. official said a major funding increase could help stamp out bird flu. The agreement with Roche Holding AG would let Vietnam start as early as next January.

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©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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