HONG KONG -- China's appeal to the World Health Organization for help to determine whether three cases of "pneumonia caused by unknown factors" in Hunan province could have been the result of the H5N1 virus indicates that Beijing is taking the threat of bird flu seriously.
Previously, Chinese health authorities had denied that two children in Xiangtan county in Hunan province -- a 12-year-old girl who died and her younger brother, 9, both of whom had eaten a sick chicken -- had caught the bird flu virus. The third case is a 36-year-old teacher who had handled chickens with a wound in his hand.
However, the Ministry of Health said Nov. 6 that "the possibility of human infection of the highly deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu cannot be ruled out" and called on the WHO to help in testing blood and throat swabs from the three victims. This suggests that China is willing to be open in the way it handles this sensitive issue.