{"id":154220,"date":"2013-04-06T03:12:35","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T10:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=154220"},"modified":"2013-04-08T19:15:29","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T02:15:29","slug":"poultry-culls-vaccine-labs-and-herbal-remedies-deployed-against-flu-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/04\/poultry-culls-vaccine-labs-and-herbal-remedies-deployed-against-flu-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Poultry Culls and Vaccine Labs Deployed Against Flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s H7N9 flu outbreak<\/a> had claimed 6 lives by Saturday, with the number of confirmed cases rising to 16<\/a>. With the discovery of the virus among live poultry on sale at Shanghai markets, over 20,536 chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons<\/a> were culled overnight on Thursday, with more to follow as authorities try to contain the disease. At The Wall Street Journal, Josh Chin and Betsy McKay summed up recent developments<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

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China now has confirmed 16 cases of H7N9 nationwide, with patients ranging in age from 4 to 87, who became ill between Feb. 19 and March 31. The number of cases, while small, is large for the early stages of an outbreak, and some flu experts said the fact that they are spread over a relatively wide geographic area is reason for concern.<\/p>\n

Among the people found to be infected, several are believed to have been in close contact with birds, including a 48-year-old who transported poultry, a 45-year-old poultry butcher and a 38-year-old chef.<\/p>\n

Authorities stressed they have yet to find a case of human-to-human transmission, which would make the disease more dangerous; the cases they have seen appear to come from human contact with birds.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Shanghai authorities moved Friday to destroy thousands of birds, ordering the closure of wholesale poultry markets and instructing vendors in smaller markets to immediately cull their chicken populations. Authorities had banned sales of live pigeon and ducks starting the morning after discovering H7N9 in samples taken from pigeons at three wholesale markets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hangzhou has also suspended live poultry trading and begun culling<\/a> at one market after the city’s second case was traced to quails that had been bought there. Officials in Shanghai promised that vendors would receive compensation of at least half the market price for any birds destroyed<\/a>, which Bloomberg World View contributor Adam Minter pointed out was likely to send some looking for better prices elsewhere<\/a>, potentially encouraging the virus’ spread.<\/p>\n

The Council on Foreign Relations’ Laurie Garrett, who has been tweeting frequent updates on the outbreak<\/a>, told PRI’s The World that “this has all the hallmarks of potentially turning into a new and quite striking pandemic \u2026. That doesn’t mean it will, it doesn’t mean it won’t, it just says that all the pieces are falling into the kind of worrisome places that we keep an eye on at this stage of an outbreak.” She expressed caution about official assurances that there has been no human-to-human transmission, and that no link exists with the thousands of floating pig carcasses that descended on Shanghai last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n