Has The H5N1 influenza gone to level 6?

I get the sneaky feeling that China is hiding information about a possible level 6 (human-to-human transmission)outbreak in her western provinces. Remember that China also deined reports of SAR's the last time. Turned out they were hiding this info too. I just don't trust them to be forthright about these things. God forbid that this might be the start of the "pandemic" that everybody is worried about!

This info orginally from internal china website...

Claims of human bird flu cases in China denied19:28 26 May 2005

NewScientist.com news service

Debora MacKenzie

Chinese officials have denied media reports that H5N1 bird flu has killed more than a 100 people in the west of the country.

A web-based Chinese-language news service called Boxun (Abundant News), which allows correspondents to freely post information on its site, reported on 25 May that 121 people in 18 villages in the sparsely-settled western province of Qinghai have died of bird flu, and more are ill. Some 1300 people, have been isolated, it reports.

-snip-

Xinhua says local authorities have “stepped up infectious disease control” by “closely monitoring and screening all pneumonia and flu-like cases among humans, fowl and livestock”.
...

The media reports are said to have come from nine correspondents in Qinhai, who report that people connected to the cases have been forbidden to talk to outsiders. Boxun cautions that the reports cannot be independently verified, but says it hopes by drawing attention to them they can be further investigated.

-snip-

...they also report that there have been large scale outbreaks of unexplained deaths among livestock in the area.

China has never reported any human cases of H5N1. These have so far been reported only in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. ...

-snip-

In the past, the Chinese authorities denied that there were cases of SARS in Beijing when it later transpired there had been.

Anybody else getting the heebe jebbies from this?

Mod Edit:
Please do not post entire articles, use the quote feature and only use the portions necessary to make your point.

[edit on 5/27/2005 by Gools]

China has been one of my main concerns since the outbreaks of late 2003 and early 2004 in SE Asia. The hiding of SARS cases 2 years ago set of a big red light, and given the prevalence of the virus in the other neighbouring countries, I would expect China to be in a similar situation due to proximity, trade, as well as common practices regarding water fowl and chicken.

I have heard china shoots people who violate quarantine, so i doubt it will spread too far.

Originally posted by XphilesPhan
I have heard china shoots people who violate quarantine, so i doubt it will spread too far.

A quarantine may be hard to implement since we still don't know the specifics of level 6 transmission. The incubation period might be weeks, in which case a vector may infect others weeks before they become symptomatic. By then the orginal vector may have traveled to other towns and villages infecting all they come in contact with. Assuming the 60% death rate, China may lose her distinction of being one of the most populated countries in the world.

Originally posted by gman55
Anybody else getting the heebe jebbies from this?

Yep. Great find gman

For the readers, here are some past threads with lots of background info on H5N1 Avian Influenza a.k.a. bird flu.

OP/ED: All About The Next Deadly Flu Pandemic.

NEWS: Bird Flu Virus Fears Spreading

China Says Deadly Bird Flu Found in Pigs

Bird flu, possible human to human transmission

WHO warns of dire flu pandemic

Human Flu in Korean Pigs

Flu Pandemic May Have Arrived

NEWS: Government Plans for Flu Epidemic: Update

*** Bush Signs Quarantine Orders for Bird Flu***

I hope these latest reports can be independently verrified as quickly as possible.

We had a SARS outbreak in Canada recently and look at how crazy it made our media and a large part of the population.

Now amplify it by several orders of magnitude if this report is true.
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