China bird flu goof-up uncovered

HONG KONG: Long-held suspicions that Chinese authorities either covered up or overlooked an early human infection of the killer avian flu have now been confirmed.

 

Eight researchers and doctors from mainland China have, in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a prestigious scientific publication, reported that a 24-year-old man in Beijing, who had pneumonia and respiratory distress and died in November 2003, was in fact the earliest victim of the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus, which has claimed nearly 140 human lives across the world.

 

Their statement, which they unsuccessfully tried to retract at the last minute, contradicts China’s official claims that the man died of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrom (SARS); it also sets the clock back for the earliest human infection of the deadly bird flu virus. Officially, China reported its first human infection to the World Health Organisation (WHO) only in November 2005.

 

The eight researchers - who come from scientific institutions in Beijing, from the People’s Liberation Army Hospital and the State Key Laboratory of Pathogens and Biosecurity - had said in their letter that genetic sequencing of H5N1 samples taken from the dead man’s lungs showed it to be a mixed virus that could be traced to the 1996 Guangdong goose virus; this admission is significant because it is from the Guangdong goose virus that the H5N1 virus was first isolated in 1996. If the researchers’ statement is true, it means that the current understanding that the first human infections in Vietnam occurred in December 2003 needs revision.

 

It would also confirm that Beijing knew of the earliest human infection, but did not report it to the WHO. Again, it would cast doubts about the integrity of scientific research disclosures in the mainland in an atmosphere where research depends on funding from the government.

 

Another twist to the controversy was added when editors at the Journal said the researchers wished to withdraw their letter at the last minute, without assigning any reason. But that request came too late, and the letter was published in Thursday’s edition.

 

The WHO’s office in China is understood to be seeking clarifications from China’s health ministry. “We want more information on exactly what happened, who this case was, what the possible source of infection was, where he was infected, the treatment - all the standard questions,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.