Taiwan defends itself from H7N9 virus. Another victim in China
Taipei (AsiaNews) - After the outbreak of avian influenza (禽流 感) H7N9 in mainland China, the Taiwanese Minister of Health Chiu Wen-ta (邱文 达) has raised the alert level throughout the entire island.
In mainland China nine people are already infected and there have been three deaths: two in Shanghai and one in Hangzhou (Zhejiang).
The Ministry of Health, President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Jiang Yi-Huah are closely following the evolution of the disease. The danger that the epidemic will spread to neighboring countries is very high. For this reason, medical checks and inspections in ports and airports are being doubled.
Shanghai has increased the alert level for infections to level 3 (out of 4) and the Ministry of Health in Beijing advised against killing poultry to offer to the spirits of the dead during the Qing Ming festival, which takes place tomorrow.
Hong Kong authorities are forcing travelers coming from infected regions of China to fill-in a health declaration form.
Three years ago Taiwan had conducted a series of vaccinations in schools against the H5N1 virus, of which the H7N9 virus is a variant. Yesterday Steve Chan (詹启贤), chairman of Adimmune Corporation (国 光 生物 科技), the manufacturer of vaccines, said that in the event of a serious infection, Adimmune has the ability to produce between 5 and 10 million vaccines for Taiwan in the next two months.
The Taiwanese Minister of Health, Chiu Wen-ta, is studying the possibility of a center for the prevention of the epidemic. For his part, the head of the Centers for Disease Control (卫生 署 疾病 管制 局, CDC), Chou Chih-hau (周志浩) says they do not exclude a direct human to human transmission of H7N9.
The vice president of the Taiwan National University Hospital (台湾 大学 医院), Chang Shang-chun (张 上 淳) spoke of the unusual factors of the victims in China: "According to information received, the family of a victim of the H7N9 were negative to the tests but are now suffering from pneumonia that does not mean that the virus is not present in the family. It is very rare that two members of the same family suffer from pneumonia at the same time, they are likely to have been infected from the same source. "
In China, it is suspected that the new outbreak could be linked to a pig epidemic, whose carcases were found in recent weeks at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
Taiwanese authorities also confirm what was stated by the spokesman for the World Health Organization for China (世界卫生组织), Timothy O'Leary, "As there is no clear evidence of human transmission, further investigation is currently underway, at this time the risks for the virus H7N9 seem to be very similar to those of the H5N1 virus ".
Since 2003, more than 600 people have been infected with the H5N1 virus and about 60% have died. Most of them had direct contact with sick birds. The virus had not reached the ability to be transmitted between humans.
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