Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Highly Contagious Bird Flu Cases Appear in China


Tue 02 Feb 2021 | 05:50 PM
Ahmed Moamar

Territories After the emergence of the deadly Corona and Nipah viruses, the Chinese authorities announced the discovery of cases of bird flu "H5N8", in a new outbreak of the virus that was detected there more than 15 years ago.

The authorities discovered highly contagious bird flu cases among wild swans at the Old Summer Palace, which is known in the Chinese language as "Yuan Mingyuan" in Beijing.

Officials said, "Three swans have been infected so far and three have died, according to" Xinhua ", the official news agency in China.

The local authorities activated the emergency response mechanism, sterilized the environment, and safely disposed of all dead wild birds.

A few days ago, a special report published by the British newspaper "The Guardian" warned of the outbreak of the "Nipah" virus in China, with a mortality rate of 75%, and that it would cause a future global pandemic that would be more dangerous than the Corona.

Before the "Nipah" virus, the bubonic plague virus appeared in China, as the Chinese government declared last July a state of emergency after the emergence of the third risk level for an outbreak of bubonic plague in Mongolia, a landlocked country bordering China in the north, warning of the disease turning into a new epidemic that might threaten the whole world.

On the other hand, the Guardian"  a UK newspaper revealed that the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a new dangerous virus which was discovered in Malaysia in 1999, and the death rate from it reached 40-75%, while the infection spreads very quickly, while there is no treatment for it yet.

Bats are a type of flying foxes, the main carrier of the "Nipah" virus in nature, especially in China, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Australia.

Infection of people with the virus occurs after contact with sick pigs, as well as a result of eating fruits, especially dates, which are contaminated with the secretions of fruit bats.