China steps up measures against bird flu
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-21 19:22

A lethal strain of the bird flu virus, H5N1, has killed 67 of the 130 people it has infected in Asia since 2003 -- mainly in Vietnam and Thailand -- but it has not shown that it can spread easily among people.

Last week China confirmed two human cases of bird flu, one of which resulted in a death. Another death was reported as being highly likely due to bird flu, but was not confirmed.

The country also plans to set up a string of new monitoring stations in rural areas to help fight bird flu, domestic media said.

Most of the 198 existing surveillance offices were based in big cities, but all of China's human infections had been in rural areas, the China Daily said, quoting the director of the Office of Health Emergency at the Health Ministry.

On Sunday the country reported two new outbreaks of the disease in birds, and said four affected provinces and the capital, Beijing, had tightened preventative measures.

Scientists fear, however, that it might mutate into a form that can do so and spark a global pandemic.

Beijing has said it plans to vaccinate 14 billion poultry birds.