China can't catch a break these days. Via the South China Morning Port: China reports outbreak of deadly bird flu among chickens in Hunan province, close to coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan.
China has reported an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu in Hunan province, which lies on the southern border of Hubei province, the epicentre of the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
“The outbreak occurred in a farm in the Shuangqing district of Shaoyang city. The farm has 7,850 chickens, and 4,500 of the chickens have died from the contagion. Local authorities have culled 17,828 poultry after the outbreak,” a statement by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Saturday.
The H5N1 avian flu virus, often called bird flu, causes severe respiratory disease in birds. and is contagious to humans. It is possible, but difficult, to transmit the infection from person to person, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
However, bird flu is deadly to humans who contract it, with a mortality rate of close 60 per cent in cases of the last 15 years. Bird flu is much deadlier to humans than either Sars (a 10 per cent mortality rate) or coronavirus (a 2 per cent mortality rate in the outbreak so far).
No human victim of the Hunan H5N1 outbreak has been reported.
