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(AP/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-17 06:20

China reported its first human cases of bird flu on the mainland Wednesday, including at least one fatality, as health workers armed with vaccine and disinfectant raced to inoculate billions of chickens and other poultry in a massive campaign to contain the virus.

The World Health Organization confirmed the virulent strain that experts fear could cause a worldwide flu pandemic has now infected humans in the world's most populous nation.

"This is a psychologically telling moment for a country that has never had bird flu cases in the past in humans," said Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in Beijing. "This will drive home to citizens across the country that this can happen in our own backyards," he said. "It's a very real threat."

Nine-year-old He Junyao, from Xiangtan County, Hunan Province, is interviewed by local media. The boy has recovered from a bird flu infection. [Reuters]

China's Health Ministry reported confirmed cases of infection with the deadly H5N1 strain in a poultry worker, who died, and a 9-year-old boy, who fell ill in central Hunan province but recovered, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said the boy's 12-year-old sister, who died, was recorded as a suspected case.

Chinese officials initially said the 12-year-old girl who died in Hunan tested negative for the virus, as did her brother and a schoolteacher who fell ill at the same time. But the government later asked WHO to help re-examine the case.

Wadia said Chinese investigators were confident the girl died of bird flu, but she couldn't be considered a confirmed case under WHO guidelines because her body was cremated and there weren't adequate samples for testing.

The 24-year-old poultry worker died in the eastern province of Anhui, where there was an outbreak last month. But Wadia said the victim didn't live near that site and instead had contact with birds that died in her own village.

"She died in a hospital," he said. "She was therefore tested adequately."

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