A 12-year-old girl, He Yin, died last month in the central Hunan province after falling ill with suspected pneumonia after an outbreak of bird flu in local poultry. Her nine-year-old brother and a 36-year-old school teacher recovered from the illness. At the time Chinese officials said that initial tests showed that the girl and her brother had tested negative for the bird flu virus.

China’s decision to ask the WHO for help in making additional checks on whether the deadly H5N1 virus was the cause of the Hunan infections marks an unusual openness by the country’s Communist rulers and underscores the seriousness of the threat posed by the disease in the world’s most populous country.

Experts say that the virus must be stopped in poultry to prevent more people catching it and nowhere is that fight more crucial than in Asia, where farmers and even city dwellers live side by side with poultry and other livestock. At least 62 people have died of the disease in South-East Asia. Scientists say the strain is mutating and could acquire changes that make it easy to spread from person to person.

The Chinese Health Ministry said yesterday that bird flu could not be ruled out as the cause of the pneumonia cases in Hunan: “As the cause of the illness was difficult to confirm, our country has invited WHO experts to come to China to jointly carry out further investigation.”

Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman, confirmed that China had approached the global health watchdog last week for help. China’s announcement was a very encouraging sign, Mr Wadia said. “It would be a significant and symbolic step . . . It just means that China is no different from any other country when it comes to bird flu.”

Despite the deaths reported in South-East Asia, including in neighbouring Vietnam, China has never reported a human case of the illness. That has raised suspicions, because in 2002 the Government tried to cover up the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), fuelling its spread to several countries the next year.

Mr Wadia said that it would not be surprising if all three of the Hunan cases turned out to be H5N1 bird flu. “Sometimes it takes a human case or a suspected human case to raise the alarm, to remind us that no country — whether China or anywhere else — can afford to be complacent.”

That the 12-year-old girl’s body was cremated could hamper the investigation, he said. Samples taken before cremation can, however, still be studied. The girl had come into close contact with sick birds three days before developing a high fever.

He Yin’s brother was treated for similar symptoms but recovered. The teacher reportedly fell ill after sustaining a minor hand injury while chopping raw chicken. All three lived in or near Wantang, a village where the Government says 545 chickens and ducks died of bird flu last month.

In a sign of the level of concern, at the weekend China mobilised soldiers for a mass bird cull in northeastern Liaoning province, where the country’s fourth recent avian flu outbreak was reported on Friday. Nearly 9,000 chickens were killed.

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