Bird flu expert urges vigilance in China

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Chinese expert on respiratory diseases says the H5N1 bird flu virus has shown signs of mutation and urged vigilance at a time when seasonal human influenza is at a peak, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

"When avian flu is around and human flu appears, this will raise the chances of avian flu turning into a human flu. We have to be very alert and careful in March," Zhong Nanshan was quoted by the Ming Pao newspaper as saying.

"People who were killed by bird flu last year and this year were too poor to seek treatment. If you happen to have high fever and pneumonia, you must seek treatment fast," said Zhong, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in China's southern Guangdong province.

Experts are worried about seasonal flu, because it could get mixed up with a deadly novel strain, such as the H5N1 bird flu virus. Such a hybrid would not only become easily transmissible between people, but packed with great killing power.

"The bird flu virus has shown signs of mutation. If infected people don't get treatment in a timely manner, they can die easily," Zhong was quoted as telling reporters on the sidelines of the Chinese parliament's annual meeting.

But World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Gregory Hartl played down Zhong's concerns.

"Mutations occur in influenza viruses. Separately from that, the (bird flu) virus continues to be deadly. But there is no new jump in deadliness," Hartl said in Geneva.

Three Chinese have died this year of H5N1 bird flu and they were infected probably through contact with sick poultry. The World Health Organization said there was no evidence of transmission between humans in all three cases.