Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(Image source: CNN / CCTV)
BY ELAINE STOCKDALE
China's H7N9 bird flu virus continues to spread. Another Shanghai man died in the hospital
Monday after 12 days of medical treatment were unsuccessful, bringing the virus' death
toll to 24 out of more than 100 infections, including the first outside of China's mainland.
A 53-year-old businessman from Taiwan is now in intensive care after contracting the virus
while traveling to the city of Suzhou via Shanghai. Local media reports he did not come
into contact with poultry during his visit, raising new concerns about how the virus spreads.
(Via NBC)
The World Health Organization has been trying to figure out how the virus is being contracted
so easily compared to other similar strains, including H5N1.
"We really are at the beginning of our understanding of this virus, and right now we may just be
seeing the most serious infections, and it may be possible that there are people who
have mild infections." (Via CNN)
During a brief trip to China, a spokesman for the World Health Organization described
the H7N9 virus as complex and "one of the most lethal" of its kind. (Via Fox News)
China's Premier Li Keqiang visited China's national Disease Control and Prevention Center
over the weekend, expressing concern over new developments.
"Premier Li Keqiang warned people to prepare for any new developments amid fears that H7N9,
as it's called, could mutate into a form easily transmissible by humans." (Via BBC)
The Wall Street Journal reports Chinese health authorities are trying to determine if the
virus could spread among humans. There might have already been person-to-person transmission
reported in at least two cases in Shanghai involving families.
And with new cases popping up, researchers say it could be weeks before the first vaccine
is ready.
Joseph Kim, president of Inovio, the company in initial stages of developing a vaccine,
told U.S. News & World Report: "The fastest we'd be able to have a vaccine to test in
animals for H7N9 would probably be 4--6 weeks from now ... In a pandemic setting, you can
potentially grow the vaccine and use them without human testing in emergency cases."
A February report from China pegged 11 days as the median time from the onset of the virus
to death.