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 January's fatalities were up to four times higher than the same
month in past years, and brought the total H7N9 death toll to 100
people since October, data from the National Health and Family
Planning Commission showed late on Tuesday.
Authorities have repeatedly warned the public to stay alert for the
virus, and cautioned against panic in the world's second-largest
economy.
But the latest bird flu data has sparked concerns of a repeat of
previous health crises, like the 2002 outbreak of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
"It's mid-February already and we are just getting the January
numbers. With the death rate almost catching up with SARS, shouldn't
warnings be issued earlier?" said one user of popular microblog Sina
Weibo.
Other netizens in the Chinese blogosphere worried about the pace of
infections, and called for even more up-to-date reports.
The People's Daily, the official paper of the ruling Communist
Party, warned people in a social media post to stay away from live
poultry markets, saying it was "extremely clear" that poultry and
their excrement were the cause of the infections.
"The situation is still ongoing, and our Chinese counterparts are
actively investigating the reported cases," the World Health
Organization's China Representative Office said in an emailed
statement to Reuters.
"As the investigation is ongoing, it is premature to conclusively
identify the cause for the increased number of cases. Nevertheless,
we know that the majority of human cases got the A(H7N9) virus
through contact with infected poultry or contaminated environments,
including live poultry markets."
Chinese chicken prices sank to their lowest levels in more than a
decade on Wednesday. [L1N1G0061]
RECORD HIGH INFECTIONS
China, which first reported a human infection from the virus in
March 2013, has seen a sharp rise in H7N9 cases since December. The
official government total is 306 since October, with 192 reported
last month.
But others believe the number of infections is higher.
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at
the University of Minnesota last week estimated China had at least
347 human infections so far this winter, eclipsing the record of 319
seen three years ago.
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"An important factor in the past waves of H7N9 cases among humans in
China has been rapid closure of live poultry markets," said Ian
Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.
"This season there seems to have been a slower response to the
outbreak, which may be leading to greater numbers of human exposures
to infected birds."
The National Health and Family Planning Commission has yet to
respond to a request from Reuters seeking comment on the recent bird
flu deaths.
Most of the H7N9 human infections reported this season have been in
the south and along the coast.
In Hong Kong, where two of the four patients infected with H7N9 this
winter have died, health officials said they would step up checks at
poultry farms.
H7N9 had spread widely and early this year, but most cases were
contained in the same areas as previous years, including the Yangtze
River Delta and Guangdong, Shu Yuelong, head of the Chinese National
Influenza Center, told state radio.
Beijing on Saturday reported its first human H7N9 case this year.
The patient is a 68-year-old man from Langfang city in neighbouring
Hebei province.
A second human case was reported on Tuesday.
"It is highly likely that further sporadic cases will continue to be
reported," the WHO said.
"Whenever influenza viruses are circulating in poultry, sporadic
infections or small clusters of human cases are possible."
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Josephine Mason; Additional reporting by
Nick Heath, Christian Shepherd, Dominique Patton and Lusha Zhang in
BEIJING and Venus Wu in HONG KONG; Editing by Randy Fabi and David
Evans)
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