Health | New bird flu case confirmed

IACM staff seals off the Macau Nam Yue Wholesale Market for complete disinfection and  the culling of live birds

Live poultry trade was suspended for at least three days after a chicken sample tested positive for the H7 strain of bird flu on Friday, Macau civil affairs and health authorities said.

Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau chief José Tavares told the press that the flu-positive sample was found in the Chinese mainland and all poultry markets in Macau will undergo strict sterilization procedures.

Tavares said all markets in Macau will suspend live poultry trade for at least three days.

The bureau added that they have closed the market where the positive sample was found, and no infected birds have entered retail markets. Some 8,200 chickens and 2,100 pigeons in that market are expected to be culled.

Macau’s Health Bureau said two drivers and two loading workers from the Chinese mainland have been identified as close contacts. They have returned to the mainland, and the bureau already reported the situation to mainland authorities.

This is the second time in 2017 that Macau suspended its live poultry trade because of a bird flu report. On January 26, Macau suspended the live poultry trade for three days.

Separately, the Health Bureau informed in a statement that the condition of the 72-year-old woman who was hospitalized in isolation at the Public Hospital (CHCSJ) for an infection of the virus H7N9 (avian influenza) has improved significantly and she was moved last Friday to the general ward.

According to the same statement, the woman who was in quarantine since January 12 after the confirmation of infection has presented a stable condition without any fever for the past several days.

In addition, the SSM mentioned that the test of a woman suspected as having bird flu came back negative. The SSM concluded that the risk of the disease’s transmissibility is low.

Concurrently the SSM informed that according to information from the health services of mainland China, a total of 62 new cases of bird flu were reported between January 16 and 29.

The provinces that reported the larger number of occurrences were Jiangsu (14 cases), followed by Guangzhou (Guangdong) with 10 new cases reported, and Zhejiang and Hunan with eight cases each.

The reports from Chinese health agencies also state that the majority of the infected are men ranging in between 26 and 84 years old.
From 62 cases, 12 were fatal cases, while another 19 patients were hospitalized and in a critical condition.

Since September 2016, infections of the avian influenza virus have been registered in several provinces, namely Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shanghai,  Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Shandong, Liaoning and Henan.

The Health Bureau  has said that MSAR government has established a series of contingency plans to tackle a possible outbreak of the disease including stocking a high number of antiviral drugs and personal protection materials.  MDT/Xinhua