China confirms new outbreak in one week
October 5th, 2006
Only days after confirming the first avian flu outbreak after a 6 weeks quiet period, China has now declared that a new outbreak of H5N1 was detected in poultry from a northern region of the country. The Henan New Village, from the Ningxia region, was reported to see about 1,000 birds die within the last days, and further testing confirmed the presence of the highly pathogenic bird flu virus. Around 70,000 more birds were culled in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. The world’s most populous continent has so far recorded 21 cases of human infections with the virus, of whom 14 perished. However, some believe that the real number of human cases is far greater and that authorities have kept the silence on many of the cases.