First Human Bird Flu Case In China Was In 2003

The first human case of bird flu infection happened in November 2003, not two years later, says the Ministry of Health in China. It had been thought that the first H5N1 human infection occurred in 2005. This confirms claims made in a letter by eight Chinese scientists, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which stated that a 24 year old man, Mr. Shi, had died in the capital, Beijing, in November 2003. He died within four days of being taken to hospital.


Authorities at the time had thought he was infected with SARS, which had hit the area at that time. However, lab tests showed he did not have SARS. Lab tests carried out in conjunction with the World Health Organization at that time showed he did have bird flu (H5N1).


If we include this case, 20 people have been infected with bird flu in China's mainland, of which 12 have died.


China's Ministry of Health stressed that this earlier case in no way means there was an outbreak of bird flu among humans or birds at that time. It stressed that the country's bird flu surveillance capability is much stronger now than it was then. The Ministry says it has no plans to search further for any other human cases around 2003 in that area. There was no outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the area at that time.


Scientists say it is possible that there had been other cases which went undetected, as the focus at the time was on SARS - cases might have been diagnosed incorrectly as pneumonia.


So far, official figures show that 233 people have become infected with bird flu globaly, of which 135 have died. The first human case of bird flu infection was in 1997, in Hong Kong.


(Bird flu = Avian flu)

(H5N1 is a bird flu virus strain. It is the most virulent one. All mention of bird flu in this article refers to H5N1)


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