Nation accelerates bird flu surveillance

A Chinese health watchdog has asked outgoing tourists with a temperature higher than 38 C who have had close contact with poultry within the last seven days to postpone their travel plans, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday.

China will enhance H7N9 bird flu epidemic surveillance at entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureaus in hope of preventing the cross-border epidemic from spreading, according to an emergency notice issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

Surveillance will focus on outgoing tourists from the regions with reports of H7N9 cases, such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. People who refuse to delay their travel need to report their reasons and wear special masks.

This move came after a conference on the prevention and control work of H7N9 human infection held by the State Council on Sunday. The State Council called on local departments at all levels to keep up a high alert against H7N9 cases in the wake of more reports of human infection cases nationwide.

Home to the largest number of human infections among all provincial-level regions this year, Zhejiang Province has seen new H7N9 cases for 18 consecutive days with a total of 49 cases and 12 deaths, chinanews.com reported Monday.

A paper on H7N9 diagnosis and treatment protocols issued on Sunday by China's health authority said the cases are mostly sporadic, and H7N9 inter-human transmission cannot be ruled out.

Lu Hongzhou, vice-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, told the Global Times the paper did not rule out inter-human transmission because there were cases of cluster outbreaks among family members.

"It's called 'limited, unsustained inter-human transmission' because it is not certain whether the family members infected each other or they contacted the same contaminated environment," Lu said.

There's still no evidence of constant inter-human transmission, he added.

The paper changed the description of flu from "communicable disease" in its 2013 version to "infectious disease," Lu said.

However, an official with the Beijing disease control center said that the H7N9 was "not strongly infectious" based on nearly a year of analysis, the Beijing Times reported on Monday.

According to the paper, the high-risk groups include those who have contact with poultry or have been to live poultry markets in the week ahead and are showing symptoms.

China's Ministry of Agriculture said on Monday that the H7N9 bird flu virus has been detected in live poultry markets in some provinces.

The ministry said that eight samples have tested positive for H7N9 since 2014, and they came from five live poultry markets in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

Lu suggested people avoid going to the poultry market and choose chilled chicken instead.