Avian Flu Diary: Anhui Province: Xuancheng City Reports 1 H7N9 Case

Anhui Province - Credit Wikipedia

# 11,202

Although we get most of our H7N9 case notifications in belated bulk releases by China's HFPC, some provinces still occasionally post brief, real-time updates when cases are diagnosed locally.

Guangdong Province is generally the most reliable in this regard, but Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui do so as well.

Today (h/t Tetano & Sharon Sanders on FluTrackers) we've notification from Anhui province of a recent case, involving a 45 y.o. man in critical condition. First the official statement, then a comment about the factoid in last line of the release.

(translation)

Xuancheng City add one case H7N9 flu cases

Published: 2016-03-26

Xuancheng City add one case H7N9 influenza cases. Patients Lee, M, 45 years old, declared the city people, March 25 diagnosis, history of exposure to live poultry before the onset of critical condition, hospital treatment in Xuancheng, Xuancheng City has started joint prevention and control mechanism. 2016 H7N9 influenza province reported a total of 5 cases. (Emergency Committee Office)

More more than a year now, reporting out of China on H7N9 (and other avian flu cases) has become scattered, inconsistent, parsimonious in detail, and often comes weeks or months after-the-fact.

While it appears this year's case load is lighter than last year, differences in reporting and surveillance make a full comparison difficult.

Despite the admission of 5 cases this year in Anhui Province, the most recent HK CHP Avian flu report still shows no cases since October of 2015 in that province.

At some point, their count will probably catch up (after Beijing releases an official EOM report), but for now it makes it look as if Anhui has been H7N9 free for nearly a year.

Meanwhile, FluTracker's H7N9 case listing has managed to pick up three recent cases Anhui, and is waiting for confirmation on a fourth.

Untangling this mess of erratic reporting has become nearly a full time job for Sharon Sanders and her team, but their case lists on Avian flu and MERS remain the most complete, current, and detailed I know of that are publically available on the Internet.