Challenges and hope loom in H7N9 fight(2)

On Monday morning, a 41-year-old male H7N9 patient in Huzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, was discharged from the hospital.

The patient surnamed Wang was infected on April 8 while culling poultry. After his H7N9 infection was confirmed on April 17, he spent five days in the hospital.

A 51-year-old woman surnamed Jia has made a full recovery and was discharged from a hospital in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, on April 18. Jia was among the first patients in critical condition to recover.

Critically ill patients are receiving effective treatment and the death rate is falling, said Feng, adding that more H7N9 infections are being discovered earlier.

About 70 percent of interviewees are satisfied with the government's measures for controlling and fighting the H7N9 avian influenza virus, according to a survey conducted among 776 people aged 16 to 70 in six Chinese cities by the Horizon Research Constancy Group.

TIGHTENED MEASURES CALLED FOR

Current research shows that poultry is the main source of human infections of H7N9 avian influenza.

Poultry has been culled and live poultry markets have been closed in east China's Shanghai Municipality and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the areas in which the virus first appeared.

Some cities have temporarily closed urban bird-and-flower markets, and bird performances in zoos or scenic spots have been suspended.

Local governments should pay more attention to the management of free-range poultry and poultry trading in open-air markets, said Zhao Zongying, president of the Zhejiang Provincial Society of Agronomy.

Also, long-distance and high-density inter-provincial poultry transportation and sales all pose hidden dangers, according to insiders.

Local governments should set up a mechanism to track live poultry and poultry products throughout the industrial chain, said Wang Kai, deputy director of the pneumology department of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University of Medicine.

Wang said catering enterprises should be required to register all poultry products throughout the entire production chain, including the purchasing and sales phases.