It's already almost noon on the first day of 2010 in Beijing, and Xinhua reports: Survey helps to combat H1N1 spread. Excerpt:
A nationwide survey beginning this month that will check for the presence of antibodies formed as a response to H1N1 flu infections will target at least 54,000 people chosen at random from different age groups, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Wednesday.
The anti-H1N1 flu effort comes as the backdrop of WHO Director-General Margaret Chan's warning that the pandemic may not be subdued until 2011.
"To help decide future strategy for H1N1 flu prevention and control, we need to know through the upcoming survey the existing immunity to this pathogen among the population," Feng Zijian, director of the emergency response department of the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told China Daily yesterday.
The blood sample of each of those surveyed will be tested for antibodies in a bid to predict disease activity related to the virus, the MOH said.
Nearly 100,000 H1N1 flu cases have been reported on the mainland, and over 47 million people have been vaccinated against the flu strain.
Yet what is worrying is that many cases of H1N1 infection have gone unreported. Such cases may number in the many thousands.
Since any data on the virus will prove crucial in the fight against the pandemic, the government will conduct the serological survey - a scientific study of blood serum to check for the presence of antibodies that are usually formed in response to infections like the H1N1 virus - to test those who may have been infected.
If the blood samples test positive for the antibodies, then it will show that the person has been infected with the H1N1 virus, Feng explained.
"The proportion of people with such infections, which will be seen from the survey, may exceed that of the reported cases," he said.
However, people who have been vaccinated against the H1N1 virus will not form part of the survey, he clarified.
