H7N9 bird flu strain spreads to Hunan
AFP/Beijing
China’s deadly outbreak of H7N9 bird flu has spread to the central province of Hunan, local health authorities said yesterday, the third announcement in three days of a case in a new location.
A 64-year-old woman in Shaoyang City, who developed a fever four days after coming into contact with poultry, was confirmed to have the virus, the Xinhua state news agency reported.
It follows the first confirmed cases in the eastern province of Jiangxi on Thursday and the southeastern province of Fujian on Friday.
More than 110 people in mainland China have been confirmed with H7N9, with 23 deaths, since the government announced on March 31 that the virus had been found in humans. Most cases have been confined to eastern China. Neighbouring Taiwan has reported one case.
A Chinese expert earlier this week warned of the possibility of more cases in a wider geographical area.
“Until the source of H7N9 avian influenza is... brought under effective control, sporadic cases might continue to appear,” said Liang Wannian of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Poultry has been confirmed as the source of the H7N9 flu among humans, but experts fear the prospect of such a virus mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which could then have the potential to trigger a pandemic.
Chinese military planes flew close to disputed isles: Japan report
AFP/Tokyo
Chinese military planes, mostly fighter jets, made more than 40 flights close to Tokyo-controlled islands at the centre of a territorial dispute on a single day this week, a press report said yesterday.
The flights took place on Tuesday, when eight Chinese marine surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone off the islands in the East China Sea, which Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyus, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported.
Citing senior government officials, the conservative daily said F-15 fighter planes from an airbase on the Japanese island of Okinawa scrambled to intercept the Chinese aircraft which flew in waves towards the skies over the islands.
“It was an unprecedented threat,” one of the officials was quoted as saying.
Another said: “If such a show of force continues, it is feared it could lead to a situation where the (Japanese) air defence force may not be able to cope.”
The report said the military planes included updated Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter aircraft.
The report, which did not say whether the planes intruded into Japan’s airspace, could not be immediately confirmed by Japan’s Defence Ministry.
Chinese government ships have frequently sailed around the five Tokyo-controlled islands in recent months sparking diplomatic clashes.
But Tuesday’s flotilla was the biggest to sail into the disputed waters in a single day since Tokyo nationalised part of the island chain in September.
On December 13, a Y-12 turbo-prop plane from China’s State Oceanic Administration breached airspace over the disputed islands, prompting the launch of Japanese F-15s.
It was the first known incursion ever by a Chinese plane into Japanese airspace, the government said at the time.