Bird Flu Center

Denying an attempt to cover up a very early case of bird flu, Chinese authorities blame a lack of communication between its researchers and health officials for failing to announce the country’s first avian influenza victim, in November 2003. Following international suspicions, China analyzed and later confirmed that its first bird flu case and fatality dates from late 2003, two years before it was previously thought the virus had appeared in the country. Research institutes were only required to report bird flu cases from December 2004, when a new law concerning infectious diseased included bird flu as a disease that should be taken into consideration. Also, 2003 saw a massive outbreak of SARS, an illness with symptoms resembling flu, so it was easy to mistakenly diagnose cases.  Chinese officials now hope that such communication problems withing its system will be resolved and claim there is no evidence of other bird flu cases before the one in question.