# 2070
Over the past 12 hours we've seen a handful of local news reports out of Hong Kong, machine translated into English, that seem to indicate they have hospitalized one or more suspected human cases of bird flu.
Frankly, machine translations - while interesting, are exceedingly difficult to decipher. They lack nuance, and the syntax can be baffling. They can sometimes alert us early to an emerging incident, but I am rarely comfortable quoting them as a reliable source.
Nonetheless, they can be an invaluable source of information, particularly from countries that are less than fully transparent.
A big hat tip to Treyfish on Flutrackers for digging up, and translating, these Chinese news items. He, along with other newshounds, do a terrific job monitoring these foreign news sources.
Today we get confirmation that at least part of this reporting has been correct.
This morning the Hong Kong government released the following statement, telling us that one person involved in the recent culling operations has been hospitalized and tested for the bird flu virus.
The rapid test reportedly came back negative, although the patient will remain hospitalized for the time being.
While it is likely that this patient is not infected with the H5N1 virus, the situation in Hong Kong bears watching.
This from news.gov.hk.
June 14, 2008
Prevention
FEHD staff's bird-flu test negative
A Food & Environmental Hygiene Department staff member who felt unwell after participating in the recent chicken cull has tested negative in the bird flu quick-test, the department's Deputy Director Alice Lau says.
On a radio programme today, Ms Lau said the staff member was responsible for taking away the culled poultry, and is at Princess Margaret Hospital for further observation. No other colleagues concerned have reported sick.
On tracing the infection source for the bird flu found in four markets, she said inspections showed eight Mainland poultry farms were operating normally. Investigation of 10 others which supply live chickens to Hong Kong is ongoing.
The Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation Department also found chickens at local farms were all healthy.
In view of this, Ms Lau did not rule out the possibility of chicken smuggling, noting the proposal to prohibit unsold live chickens from being kept at markets overnight can break the virus accumulation and transmission cycle, and help deter smuggling through daily intake monitoring.
