New H5N1 strain in China

[kiki06]

New H5N1 strain in China

A new strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has not shown any significant mutation that would enable it to spread easily among people, the World Health Organisation said.

But the U.N. health body expressed disappointment with Chinese agriculture officials, and urged them to share samples in a timely fashion so potential vaccines could be prepared.

Researchers in Hong Kong and the U.S. said in a report released this week the "Fujian-like strain", first detected in China's southern Fujian province in March 2005, had increasingly been found in six provinces, displacing other H5N1 strains.

While vaccines now used in poultry in China can neutralise most H5N1 strains, the Fujian variant evades them, making it "predominant". The report added it may have started a third wave of outbreaks in parts of Southeast Asia and could spread further.

"It doesn't appear at this stage to be more transmissible to humans. Based on the information that was shared, there were no significant changes that would indicate increased transmissibility or increased pandemic risk," said Julie Hall, the WHO's bird flu coordinator in Beijing.

Hall said China's Ministry of Health had analysed six human H5N1 samples and identified them as the "Fujian-like virus".

"It shared the sequence data with the WHO in addition to sharing the six samples themselves," Hall said, adding that one of the samples had since been selected as a seed virus for the making of a prototype vaccine.