China on Red alert : Bans poultry sale to curb Bird Flu.. 28-02-2019, by admin, 0 Comments 4 Views BEIJING: China has issued a high alert and banned sale of poultry in several parts of the country in order to curb the alarming rise in the number of people infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu. The move, which comes ahead of the Chinese New Year festivities, covers large parts of eastern and southern China. So far this year, the virus has killed 20 people in China out of 96 known infections, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The virus remains hard to catch and most cases have been linked to contact with poultry. The World Health Organization has warned of “further sporadic human cases” because of increased production and trade of poultry during the Lunar New Year. Poultry markets are being closed in Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jinhua cities in eastern Zhejiang Province, which saw 49 human H7N9 infections including 12 deaths this month. “It deserves high attention when the infection cases increase by dozens or hundreds of times. But public panic is unnecessary given the slow transmission speed,” Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Guangdong Province, said. Authorities in Shanghai, which neighbors Zhejiang, have been asked to halt live poultry trading from January 31, the New Year day, to April 30 this year and strengthen surveillance of poultry and industry staff. Four people including a doctor died of bird flu and another four infected are undergoing medical treatment in Shanghai. In Hong Kong, health authorities have confirmed an H7N9 case at a local agricultural market. They have ordered the culling of 20,000 birds in the market due to bird flu. New H7N9 cases have also been reported from other provinces like Jiangsu, Fujian and Hunan. But government authorities are not worried about a possible epidemic because almost all cases of bird flu have been caused due to direct contact with live poultry and there has been no case of human-to-human infection. “There is no evidence of regular inter-human transmission, and the risk assessment of H7N9 epidemic outbreak is unchanged,” said Shu Yuelong, director of the Chinese National Influenza Center.