China's Ministry of Health announced on January 9 the country's
eighth human case of H5N1 bird flu, a 6-year-old boy surnamed
Ouyang in Guiyang County, central China's Hunan Province.
The boy has been hospitalized and his condition is stable, the
ministry said.
Investigations found that domestic foul raised by Ouyang's
family had died before he showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on
December 24, the ministry said.
Ouyang's blood and body fluid samples, collected by the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of China, tested positive
for the H5N1 virus according to World Health Organization (WHO) and
Chinese government standards, the ministry said.
Local health authorities have taken measures to check the spread
of the virus. Persons who had close contact with the boy are under
strict medical observation, but no abnormal clinical symptoms have
been found in them so far.
The Chinese health ministry has informed the WHO, China's Hong
Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and several other countries of the new
case.
Previously, the ministry had reported seven human cases of bird
flu, including two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, one
fatality in southeast China's Fujian Province, two who recovered in
central China's Hunan Province and northeast China's Liaoning
Province respectively, one in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.
(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2006)
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