Word: h5n1
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...Hong Kong was almost the birthplace of a disastrous pandemic. A strain of avian flu called H5N1 leaped the species barrier and infected 18 people, killing six, before the slaughter of the city's 1.4 million chickens helped stop the spread. Last week, alarm bells rang anew when a local 33-year-old man and his nine-year-old son contracted a similar virus. The father died of pneumonia Feb. 17, while the son remains in stable condition. Officials say the victims were probably infected through contact with chickens while visiting China's Fujian province, and that until H5N1...
...more than 1.5 million people worldwide. Considering the lethal history, scientists are keen to track the mutations of the latest virus. Although only the 1997 variant infected humans, the concern is that another fatal combination could leap the species barrier at any time."We do not know enough about H5N1," Shortridge says. "It's a dangerous situation...
...accurate or accessible official records of animal disease outbreaks. October reports of bird flu in Fujian province and the slaughter of 10,000 ducks and chickens were denied by Chinese officials. In addition, mainland farming and health regulations are lax, and where they do exist, enforcement is minimal. If H5N1 is detected in carcasses or feces when stock reaches Hong Kong, the chickens are sent back and too often merely repackaged. Says Hong Kong legislator Wong Yung-kan: "Everyone knows chickens that fail live-import quarantine become frozen imports...
...Even though all three recent H5N1 chicken strains are related to a goose virus that originated in Guangdong, when Hong Kong inspectors find diseased mainland chickens, they are not allowed to trace the outbreak across the border to its source...
...Mainland officials well know that chicken flu is bad for business. After each H5N1 outbreak, Hong Kong has banned poultry imports from China, if only temporarily. When Macau detected H5N1 in Chinese geese last May, Chinese waterfowl imports were banned for three months. And after avian flu was detected in Chinese duck meat by Seoul authorities in mid-2001, Japan and South Korea imposed a two-month ban. Within days of Hong Kong's latest outbreak, sales of chicken plunged 80%?an estimated loss to retailers of $13 million. "This is supposed to be our peak season," says Wong...