# 4024
From Jason Gale of Bloomberg news, we get this report of a deal inked between the Chinese government and the WHO (World Health Organization) to open a cooperative influenza research center in Beijing.
China is believed to have been the birthplace of several influenza outbreaks, with the previous two pandemic strains (1957 and 1968) first identified in China, as well as the H5N1`bird flu’ virus in 1997.
We’ve also seen a handful of avian H9 human infections show up in Hong Kong over the past few years. While H9 avian virus infections have thus far tended to be mild, anytime an avian virus begins to jump to humans, it is of concern.
And while not an influenza, SARS emerged in Guangdong Province in 2003 and from there spread around the world.
WHO scientists on a site visit to Beijing.
China has long been a difficult place from which to extract good information about disease outbreaks. Hopefully this new cooperative effort with the WHO will help facilitate the timely flow of information.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control issued a statement today (translated text here), but you’ll probably be more content reading Jason Gale’s reporting on this instead. As with all of Jason’s stories, it is well worth following the link to read it in its entirety.
Beijing Flu Center to Speed Research on New Viruses (Update1)
By Jason Gale
Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- China and the World Health Organization agreed to open an influenza research center in Beijing to identify and share knowledge about new strains.
Approval for the center was given last week when health officials and WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda met in Beijing, China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement on its Web site today. Arrangements to formally designate the laboratory as a WHO collaborating centre are still being worked out, the Geneva-based health agency said.
The center may hasten the detection and response to new strains, said John Mackenzie, a Melbourne-based virologist who chaired the WHO’s emergency committee responding to the pandemic sparked by swine flu. The previous two global outbreaks, as well as the H5N1 bird flu strain, were first identified in China.
