Chinese lack of transparency could trigger bird flu pandemic

The transparency of health authorities in China has come under criticism yet again with the news of a new strain of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus which virologists say could be resistant to vaccines.

The new strain has now spread from southern China to South East Asia, and re-ignited very real fears of an imminent pandemic.

The strain was first isolated in Fujian province in March 2005, and has since appeared in several provinces in China since October 2005, and Hong Kong, Laos Thailand and Malaysia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has criticized China's Agriculture Ministry for not sharing samples of the newly discovered strain of bird flu, complicating the health watchdog's efforts to track the virus' spread.

The ministry's reluctance has been an ongoing source of aggravation for the WHO and International health experts have repeatedly complained about Chinese reluctance in co-operating on investigating emerging diseases like bird flu and the SARS pneumonia.

According to three researchers, University of Hong Kong virologists Guan Yi and Malik Peiris, and U.S.-based Robert Webster, the variant has already initiated a third wave of transmission throughout Southeast Asia and may spread further in Eurasia and the controls now in place were probably "ineffective" in dealing with H5N1's evolutions.

The scientists had collected bird faecal samples from poultry markets in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Hunans provinces from July 2005 to June 2006; about 1,300 of these samples tested positive for H5N1.

The provinces are densely populated and people live in close proximity to ducks, pigs and other farm animals, making the area a common breeding ground for flu viruses.

However, in other samples, collected from October 2005, they found that the Fujian strain had become predominant.

The study found that one out of every 30 geese and one out of every 30 ducks in live markets tested positive for H5N1 but in that same period, however, Chinese authorities reported only three outbreaks in those same provinces.

The researchers believe the predominance may be because the strain has remained immune to bird flu vaccines.

Experts say that new strains of viruses emerge regularly and health experts need to know if one becomes dominant in order to develop methods to detect and fight the disease.

Some countries are thought to be reluctant to share genetic information or samples of viruses because they are afraid they will be pushed aside in the global race to produce a lucrative vaccine.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has devastated poultry in China and several other southeast Asian countries and also has claimed more than 150 human lives. Almost all of the people affected lived close to flocks of chickens or other poultry.

The article on the “Fujian-like virus” is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.