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April 5, 2013

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2 more H7N9 patients die in city

China reported five more H7N9 cases yesterday, including two more deaths in Shanghai, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 14 and the death toll to five.

Four of the latest cases were in Shanghai.

A 48-year-old man surnamed Chu from Jiangsu Province began coughing on March 28, developed a fever on Monday and was admitted to the Tongji Hospital in Putuo District on Wednesday morning for emergency treatment. But he died three hours later after his condition suddenly deteriorated, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission said.

Chu had been making a living as a poultry transporter. He had gone to a private clinic for treatment but was transferred to the Tongji Hospital after showing no signs of getting better.

Eight people who had been in close contact with him had no symptoms of fever or respiratory illness, the Shanghai Health Bureau said.

The other fatality, a 52-year-old local retired worker surnamed Yu. went to the Changning District Central Hospital with a fever on March 29. When her condition got worse she was transferred to Huashan Hospital but died on Wednesday. One of the 31 people who had close contact with Yu developed a fever and is under quarantine at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center last night.

One of the other two confirmed cases in Shanghai was a four-year-old boy who is said to have exhibited only slight symptoms and is recovering. The other case, a 67-year-old retiree identified by officials by her surname Cao, was in a critical condition last night.

None of their close contacts had fevers or respiratory problems.

In Huzhou City in east China's Zhejiang Province, a 64-year-old farmer was confirmed as having the H7N9 virus by the provincial health department yesterday. He became sick on March 29 and was hospitalized two days later. He is still undergoing treatment.

So far, no clinical abnormalities have been detected among 55 of his closest contacts.

Wu Fan, director of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said: "With more cases of the H7N9 avian influenza reported, epidemiology experts are gaining more information and clinical case material on the virus, which will enable them to more quickly identify the virus's pathogenicity and ability to spread."

Disease control and prevention centers across the city received testing reagents for the H7N9 virus yesterday. It may take about five to six hours for testing after laboratories receive samples, said Zhang Xi, an official with the center.

Shanghai has initiated an emergency plan for flu cases.

Under the plan, hospitals must report suspected cases to health authorities at the earliest time and send samples to disease control centers for testing.

Meanwhile, the city's market watchdog, the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau, has stepped up inspections at wet markets and poultry sales stalls, while the Shanghai Food Safety Office is enhancing checks on local restaurants.

Last month, an 87-year-old man and a 27-year-old man died in Shanghai and a third man passed away in neighboring Zhejiang Province. Of the 14 cases confirmed so far, six were in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, one in Anhui and three in Zhejiang.

Health authorities and hospitals across the country have been put on high alert for the virus, Xinhua news agency reported.

In Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province, which neighbors Zhejiang, five hospitals have been selected and ordered to be ready to treat H7N9 patients, though no cases have been reported there.

South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has ordered an inventory on medical supplies and respiratory equipment for potential H7N9 cases.

China's health authorities have promised transparency and cooperation to the World Health Organization.

The incubation period of H7N9 avian flu is within seven days and patients should be isolated and take anti-flu drugs as early as possible, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The source of infection is not known, but it said it could be poultry or secretion and excrement from poultry.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a pandemic because the sub-type is not thought to be transmitted from human to human, unlike the more common H5N1 strain which killed more than 360 people globally from 2003 until March 12 this year.

In another development, a man in central China's Hunan Province died from H1N1 (swine) flu infection on Wednesday.


 

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