Shanghai authorities are culling poultry at a market as the H7N9 bird flu virus was detected there. Source: AAP
SHANGHAI has ordered all live poultry markets in the city closed after culling more than 20,000 birds to curb the spread of the H7N9 flu virus, which has killed six people in China.
The latest fatality was a 64-year-old farmer who died in Huzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, local officials said on Friday, according to the state Xinhua news agency.
He is thought to be among 14 previously confirmed human cases of H7N9, and is the second person from Zhejiang province to die from the new bird flu strain, with the other four fatalities in Shanghai, China's commercial hub.
Shanghai has a population of 23 million people and city government spokesman Xu Wei said its live poultry markets were being shuttered temporarily for "public safety" purposes, and all trade in live poultry banned.
The moves came after the virus was found in pigeon samples from the Huhuai market in Shanghai, where Xinhua said a total of 20,536 chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons had been slaughtered.
Images posted on the Sina Weibo microblog by a local television reporter showed men in protective clothing and face masks entering the market in the city's western suburbs during the night, and dozens of empty birdcages.
On Friday, the entrance to the poultry section was concealed with wooden boards and sealed off with plastic tape, with a police car parked nearby and white disinfectant powder sprinkled in the street.
Two staff members at the market told AFP the slaughter was completed overnight, but one of them added: "Of course, I'm worried."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has played down fears over the H7N9 strain, saying there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission, but that it was crucial to find out how the virus infects humans.
Like the H5N1 variant which typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, experts fear such viruses could mutate into a form easily transmissible between humans, with the potential to trigger a pandemic.
Shanghai city health official Wu Fan also said on Friday there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. One person who had been in close contact with a victim had shown flu-like symptoms, but tested negative for H7N9, she said.
"There is no possibility of spreading the infection overseas," Wu told a press conference.
The first two deaths from the virus, which had not been seen before in humans, occurred in February but were not reported by authorities until late March. Officials said the delay in announcing the results was because it took time to determine the cause of the illness.
The state-run China Daily on Friday quoted the ministry of health in Beijing as pledging "open and transparent exchanges with the WHO and other countries and regions".
In 2003, Chinese officials were accused of trying to cover up the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed about 800 people across the world.
US health authorities said on Thursday they were liaising with domestic and international partners to develop a vaccine for the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a US federal agency, said it was "gathering more information to make a knowledgeable public health risk assessment, and developing a candidate vaccine virus".
According to the WHO, the animal source of the infection and its mode of transmission are not yet clear.
"We do not yet know enough about these infections to determine whether there is a significant risk of community spread," the UN's health agency said in an online H7N9 update.
Experts are concerned that the virus appears to have spread across a wide geographical area, with people sickened not only in Shanghai, but also the nearby provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui.
"I am cautiously worried," virologist John Oxford of the Queen Mary University of London told AFP.
"If there were four cases in Shanghai, I would be much less concerned, but because it is so geographically widespread I think it is trying to tell us something."
State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Friday that health ministry officials were meeting with agricultural personnel to draw up an action plan aimed at "preventing the spreading of the disease".
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