2 Shanghai men die from H7N9 bird flu

By CCTV reporter Zhang Ningben
Three people have been officially announced to have contracted the H7N9 strain of the disease. Two of them, both from Shanghai have died. Some online users in Shanghai are questioning whether the Minhang district hospital that treated one of the dead patients was telling the truth last month when it announced suspected fever cases on its official weibo account.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission says the two Shanghai men were aged 87 and 27. They got sick in late February and died in early March from H7N9. The two had had no contact with each other.
There were online rumors in early March of some unexplained deaths at the Shanghai Fifth People’s Hospital in Minhang District. The hospital’s online response at the time was that three of its patients who had pneumonia had not been infected by SARS or bird flu. Two of them died.
Many people were wondering why the National Health and Family Planning Commission confirmed yesterday that one of them - the 87 year old man - had the H7N9 virus, and asked whether the hospital was hiding something.
Today, a hospital official says that they had only tested for the H5N1 bird flu, which is a subtype of the influenza A virus. But he said the answer was no.
Huang Taocheng, Shanghai 5th People’s Hospital, said:"The result that we had previously announced was for the highly pathogenic bird flu, called the H5N1 virus. But now it is H7N9, which none of us could have found at that time. "
Yuan Zheng’an, Shanghai Disease Control & Prevention Ctr., said:"We have checked all the possible pathogens that could cause severe pneumonia. They all turned out negative. So under those circumstances, we could only diagnose it as a case of severe pneumonia. But after doing an analysis for a period of time in the lab, we have found out it is a new virus. "
The hospital says the three patients had reported no contact with any poultry, and nobody who treated them is sick.
Huang Taocheng said:"It’s been two weeks since the family came to our hospital. But so far none of our staff has shown any symptoms. "
The city’s Disease Control and Prevention Center says it has been monitoring flu, pneumonia and fever patients in Shanghai. But it will take a while to determine how harmful the new virus is to humans, because it is the newest subtype of H7N9 bird flu to be found.
Yuan Zheng’an said:"According to what we know now, its ability to spread and its pathogenicity is still uncertain. But I can say it is not highly contagious. We will strengthen the monitoring of local patients who have the flu and the checks on virus mutation. And we’ll also intensify the examinations on pneumonic virus and do more lab tests. "
So far, there is no vaccine against the virus.