英闻天下——535 Experts Comment on the Current Bird Flu

 　　On April 15, the Department of Health of east China's Jiangsu Province reported that a woman surnamed Gu, a 77-year-old who had previously 1 tested positive for the H7N9 virus, died on April 15 after emergency treatments failed.

 
　　The province also reported one new infection case. A 60-year-old man surnamed Kong tested positive for H7N9 on Monday and is receiving treatment in a hospital in Suzhou. Three people who have had close contact with him have not exhibited any abnormal symptoms.
 
　　Meanwhile, according to the local health bureau, a 79-year-old patient has been transferred from the intensive care unit to a regular ward 2 in the Second Hospital of Nanjing.
 
　　According to a statement issued by the provincial 3 health department, another infection case was confirmed in neighboring Zhejiang Province on Monday. A 68-year-old woman surnamed Wang began exhibiting flu-like symptoms on April 3 and is now in a critical condition.
 
　　Zeng Guang is the chief infectious disease expert at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He says there no definite answer on why people on certain age group are more vulnerable.
 
　　"Presently, we haven't found the H7N9 bird flu infects the majority of people. So it's unclear that people with close contact to poultry 4 may be more easily infected. We need to do more research on it. Currently, the elderly seem to be more vulnerable to the disease, but we don't know whether it's because they have more frequent contact with poultry or if it's because of their physical condition. As for children, we lack related data to tell whether this group is more vulnerable to the disease and they are more easily cured. We just can't say so far."
 
　　Currently, there are eight kinds of bird flu viruses which can infect human. Among them, H5N1 has infected the most humans. The first human H5N1 infection case was found in 1997 in Hong Kong, a 3-year-old boy. By the end of 1997, Hong Kong reported 18 H5N1 cases.
 
　　Statistics from the World Health Organization show Indonesia has the biggest bird flu death toll 5 in the world. From 2003 to 2012, 192 bird flu cases were reported in Indonesia and 160 died.
 
　　Cambodia has reported 10 bird flu cases since the beginning of 2013 with 8 deaths.
 
　　Zeng Guang says there is a connection between Asia's high number of bird flu cases and the way people raise poultry.
 
　　"This is a matter which the academicians have been studying for a long time. Asia is a major poultry, livestock 6 and fish production region in the world. People raise chickens, ducks, pigs and fish together mostly near the water. This kind of feeding environment creates a good condition for the virus to mutate. "
 
　　Up to now, a total of 63 H7N9 cases have been reported across China, with 24 in Shanghai, 17 in Jiangsu, 16 in Zhejiang, three in Anhui, two in Henan and one in Beijing.
 
　　For CRI, I am Li Dong.