On Friday Chinese health officials reiterated that China was not covering up human cases of bird flu as has been suggested by a number of Western media news reports which cast doubt on China's bird flu data.

 

Each confirmed human case of bird flu in China had been made public and the release of the information has been timely, open and transparent, said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health.

 

He said in an interview with Xinhua that the majority of human cases of bird flu were?contracted before outbreaks in poultry or migratory birds had been confirmed.

 

Mao emphasized that the vastness of China and the fact that local medical services were varied around the country in terms of awareness, detection and treatment made it difficult to track the outbreaks.?

 

The ministry has been urging local authorities to strengthen reporting, testing and screening of cases of pneumonia of an unknown cause and to be very cautious in ruling out bird flu, he told Xinhua.

 

"Most local medical institutes where people with bird flu are first treated were slow in reporting to health authorities and therefore we must first raise their awareness,” he said. “That is a priority."?

 

In a statement released on the ministry's website on Tuesday there’s a request for local institutes to directly report suspicious cases of pneumonia through the nationwide network and inform local health authorities immediately. ?

 

In a report in the Asian edition of the US-based Wall Street Journal on Thursday doubts were expressed about China's bird flu data. The report suggested some officials might be concealing suspected cases and that the death toll in China is likely to be higher than the official figure of 12.

 

"We must clarify that China has not been concealing any confirmed or suspected human cases of bird flu since the first case occurred in November of last year," Mao said.

 

China has reported 18 human cases of bird flu 12 of which have resulted in fatalities. The latest case is an eight-year pupil in southwest China's Sichuan Province who is being treated in a local hospital. News of her illness was revealed yesterday, the day it was confirmed by authorities, which was 11 days after she contracted the disease.

 

The World Health Organization has recorded 205 human cases of bird flu resulting in 113 deaths by April 27. Experts have warned the virus could mutate into a form which could pass between people and cause a pandemic.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2006)