China: The Chinese government has sent millions of bird flu vaccines to the northwestern province of Qinghai to stop the spread of a deadly strain of the disease that has killed scores of people in Asia.
The ministry of agriculture confirmed at the weekend that the deaths of migratory birds in the region were caused by the highly contagious virus, which first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997.
More than three million doses of vaccine against the H5N1 strain have been sent to the remote province and the government has taken other steps to stop the disease spreading, including closing nature reserves.
The China Daily newspaper said poultry across Qinghai, as well as in neighbouring Tibet and Xinjiang, had been made the "target of a compulsory vaccination campaign".
This is the first report of the disease since the Chinese government dealt with a number of cases last year.
Since late 2003, the H5N1 strain has killed 37 Vietnamese, 12 Thais and four Cambodians as it has swept across large chunks of Asia.
The Beijing government is haunted by memories of the global public relations disaster over the tardy handling of the Sars epidemic in 2003 and health authorities are keen to be seen to take swift action on any health scares.
Scientists had proved that the H5N1 virus killed scores of geese in Qinghai in early May and the area where the dead geese were found had been sealed off for 10 days.
What scientists are most worried about is someone contracting both the bird flu virus and a regular human influenza.
This could lead to a scenario where the viruses swap genetic material and mutate into a form that is contagious.
"There have been no reports of the disease spreading to human beings or fowl so far, thanks to Qinghai's fast emergency response in sealing off the affected area to prevent people and fowl coming into contact with wild birds," the ministry of agriculture told the China Daily.
Last year Asia had to deal with an unprecedented epidemic of bird flu, which saw 100 million chickens slaughtered.
Experts said domestic poultry in China, the world's number two producer after the United States, could also be at risk.
China has been on high alert against bird flu after outbreaks in North Korea and Southeast Asia, which prompted it to tighten quarantine controls at its borders.
But Qinghai is far from either border and domestic media said the birds might have migrated over the Himalayas from India for the mating season.
Studies have shown the Sars virus mutated within weeks to become much more deadly than in its original form.
The World Health Organisation takes bird flu very seriously and has called for surveillance to be stepped up.
The WHO said last week the spate of human bird flu cases in Vietnam this year suggested the deadly form of the virus might be mutating in ways that are making it more capable of being passed between humans.
Some experts fear a hybrid virus could spark a pandemic similar to the one that killed 40 million around the globe in 1918-19.
Hong Kong health officials dealt with an outbreak in 1997 by killing all infected birds quickly, which is widely accepted as the best way to deal with an epidemic.
All told, China burned around 145,000 culled birds.
Some 150 bar-headed geese were found dead on the shore of the Qinghai lake from May 4th to 6th, said He Yubang from a local nature reserve.
The island at the lake is home to more than 100,000 birds and is a major tourist attraction.
The reserve has since been sealed off.
Another 28 dead geese were discovered in the following two days, pushing the death toll up to 178 by the morning of May 8th, with no further deaths reported after that.
Vietnamese health officials said yesterday that preliminary tests had shown another person had died of the virus at a hospital in Hanoi last week.