Experts call it “very irresponsible” and say Beijing does not provide details on the severity and location of the case.
China has identified “sporadic” cases of human avian influenza infections, the administration said after spending quietly about the outbreak in Pauls.
The announcement comes after two workers in China’s disease prevention and control sector reported that during the Epoch era, the administration had concealed the severity of the outbreak of respiratory diseases in the country. One worker also said that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 avian flu or avian flu is limited.
On February 27, Beijing Daily, under the control of the Chinese Communist Party’s Beijing Municipal Commission (CCP), said the outbreak of norovirus disease has increased, citing the administration’s infectious disease prevention and control force. Hands, feet and mouth disease. tuberculosis and other diseases.
The report also stated that Covid-19 was spreading at “relatively low levels” and that the outbreak of MPOX and human avian influenza was “sporadicated” and “low” without providing details.
Microbiologist Dr. Shawn Lin, a member of the current committee on risks: former researchers at China and the Walter Reed Army Institute criticized the CCP for not disclosing more information.
The administration “had to admit that humans had cases of avian flu,” he told the Epoch Times. “The (infectious disease) was described as ‘sporadic’ and ‘low’ but did not reveal an exact number of cases, severe cases, or fatalities. They also did not clarify where the cases are or whether there are areas of high risk. This is extremely irresponsible. ”
On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China’s southwest Chingin city, included human avian influenza in its March health risk notification.
The city’s CDC in Hunan Province’s Uaihua city held a training session in late February on response to respiratory diseases, including influenza, Covid-19 and human avian influenza, the local government said on Sunday.
Shanghai city authorities, which banned the trade of live Paul Lily in the city in 2024, extended the ban until the end of 2027.
A Shanghai resident posted a photo of the autograph on social media. This was reportedly filmed in the emergency department in mid-February. This symbol asks medical staff to let you know if they have been in contact with birds in the last 10 days, have been in contact with a Covid-19 patient, or have travelled to a particular area of the world in the last two weeks.
Lin said the actions taken by local governments suggest that they are very concerned about the possibility of a large-scale outbreak of avian influenza among humans.
Healthcare workers: Official data is not reliable
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing says that current winter flu-like symptoms are driven primarily by H1N1. However, locals have taken them to social media to express their suspicion that the CCP may be underestimating the role of other respiratory diseases, including Covid-19 and avian flu.
Speaking to the Chinese version of the Epoch Times in January and February, executives from China’s disease prevention and control, which are not named due to safety concerns, said a variety of diseases are driving China’s deaths from respiratory diseases, including influenza A variant, COVID-19 variants and avian influenza.
On February 15, he said the H5N1 variant began sending from human to human, but that infection was inefficient and physical contact was required.
Once avian flu cases are identified, the city’s CDC will quarantine the patient’s family and test them, telling them they have been tested for flu A.
In January, executives said isolated areas were being set up and expanded across the country. He also said the administration is preparing for a number of potential deaths.
A city’s CDC employee also told the Epoch Times that influenza A cases were bulging to hide other illnesses.
“There was a lot of information hidden here,” he said, adding that the supposed cases of influenza infection could be either H5N1 or “Little Cans,” one of the code names used for Covid-19 to avoid censorship.
A total of 954 cases of H5N1 infection were reported to the WHO between 2003 and 2024, with 464 (49%) fatal. During the same period, China reported 56 cases, of which 32 (57%) were fatal.
Silence on the development between poultry
Some local governments in China have recently begun to mention animal avian influenza prevention.
On Monday, local governments in Shanghai announced efforts to prevent livestock infections, including avian flu. Tianjin, northern China, announced similar preparations on Tuesday.
The announcement said Chinese poultry farmers have gone to social media to destroy bird flocks after complaining about the bird flu outbreak.
Last month, a goose farmer said he knows several affected farmers, including two who lost thousands of geese. Another goose farmer said he knows some farmers who have lost their entire flock. The duck farmer explained a similar situation.
However, China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Media is silent about the domestic avian flu outbreak, but they provide detailed coverage of the non-Chinese avian flu outbreak.
Over the same period, 39 outbreaks have been reported to organizations by other countries, primarily the US, Japan and European countries, the report shows.
Meanwhile, a 10-year-old research paper on H5N1, shared by Chinese social media users in January, was quickly purged.
In a previous interview with the Epoch Times, Lynn said that CCP’s failure to warn the public about the outbreak of H5N1 in poultry is likely to have “very serious consequences.”
If more people are infected with avian flu through birds, this could “severely accelerate” the virus’ mutation, potentially allowing them to be transmitted more quickly among humans, he warned.
Lin said Western countries should pressure the CCP to “disclose all data on avian influenza, particularly human infections with avian influenza.”
Ho Meishan, an infectious disease expert in Taiwan and a former researcher at Academia Sinica’s Biomedical Institute, said during the Epoch era in February it was important to monitor the outbreak of avian influenza on poultry farms in China as China has a vaccination programme for avian influenza.
The outbreak in China “indicating that their vaccine has probably failed,” she said. Ho added that avian influenza viruses tend to mutate faster in countries that have chosen to use vaccines for vaccine-induced immune pressure.