# 4642
On June 4th we learned of the death of a 22 year-old pregnant woman from Hubei province in China from the H5N1 virus.
This was the first human bird flu case reported out that nation since January of 2009, when 7 cases (4 fatal) made headlines in just one month.
Abruptly, as if turning off a spigot, the coverage of bird flu cases in China stopped in February of 2009. For the next 16 months, we heard almost nothing.
Given the large expanse and population of China, their limited surveillance, a state run press, and a historical reluctance to disclose internal matters – particularly when it comes to disease outbreaks – there remains considerable skepticism that we are hearing about all of the bird flu cases in that country.
The same void in reporting exists from other nations, of course. Particularly Indonesia.
China’s official news agency Xinhua released the following statement yesterday, calling for heightened measures to control the bird flu virus.
China's Health Ministry calls for heightened measures following bird flu death
2010-06-13 00:21:51
BEIJING, June 12 (Xinhua) -- China's Health Ministry on Saturday called for heightened measures against the possible spread of bird flu virus after a woman in central China died from the disease on June 3.
The ministry urged health authorities at all levels to increase prevention and control measures on respiratory diseases as the country's southern areas are entering into the peak flu season.
Health authorities at all levels, especially in Shanghai and Guangzhou, host cities respectively for the 2010 World Expo and the Asian Games, were asked to formulate emergency plans to cope with the possible spread of the disease, according to a notice posted on the ministry website.
Health authorities at all levels should report and respond quickly to unidentifiable pneumonia, it said, adding they should also prepare medical equipment and pharmaceuticals to cope with possible outbreaks of respiratory diseases, such as bird flu.
Health authorities in Shanghai, Guangzhou, quake-hit Yushu in Qinghai Province and southern provinces plagued by floods were also asked to coordinate the assistance of experts to take effective measures on disease prevention and control.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a machine translation of a Chinese Language article that appeared on ifeng.com yesterday and has been circulating around the flu forums over the last 24 hours.
The link to the article was emailed to me by a friend (thanks, again).
It concerns the 22 year-old who died in early June, named Chen, and it demonstrates the difficulties inherent in relying on machine translations.
The translation engines I've run it through (Worldlingo, Yahoo Babelfish, and Google) all produce slightly different interpretations.
Most of the story is a routine rehash of things we already knew. There is, however, a single sentence that suggests this might be a bigger story.
Google’s translator says `Chen's parents died eating chicken because the chicken plague'.
Which raised some eyebrows because, if true, this would make this a family cluster with 3 victims.
But World Lingo translates the same passage as `Chen ate the chicken because in the maternal home which chicken plague died.'
Which suggests she ate chicken at her parent’s house where chickens had died.
A big difference.
Looking for a tiebreaker, Babelfish gives us, `Chen Mou ate the chicken which, because in the maternal home chicken plague died’
Which once again suggests she ate chicken at her parents, not that her parents died.
As to the truth of the matter?
Given the vicissitudes of news reporting out of China (regardless of language or the source), I’ve obviously no way of knowing.
The Xinhua report above, urging heightened monitoring for unidentifiable pneumonias, raises suspicions that there has been more H5N1 activity over the past 16 months in that nation than we’ve seen reported.
But for now I’m assuming the Google translation, being the outlier of the three, is misleading.
If we get more, and hopefully better information, I’ll pass it along.
And when that happens, it will likely come from the combined efforts of the volunteer flu forum newshounds, who do an incredible job finding, translating, and interpreting public health related news items from all over the world.
For more on how they go about that formidable task, you might wish to read Newshounds: They Cover The Pandemic Front.
