China snubs away WHO’s blames

China, blamed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for not sharing new strains of H5N1 bird flu samples, said on Thursday that no evidence for the new strain was found in its southern provinces.

The WHO picked apart China's Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday, blaming them for not sharing samples of newly discovered strain of bird flu, hampering the efforts to curb the virus’s threat.

‘Despite the prevalence, the Agriculture Ministry has not given the WHO any samples of the new strain”, said Julie Hall, an infectious disease expert at the WHO's Beijing office.

"There's a stark contrast between what we're hearing from the researchers and what the Ministry of Agriculture says," Hall said in a telephone interview.

"Unless the Ministry tells us what's going on and shares viruses on a regular basis, we will be doing diagnostics on strains that are old."

China however snubbed away the report released last week by scientists, which held that new strain of bird flu, first isolated in the southern Chinese province of Fujian last year may have started outbreaks in Southeast Asia and is the chief cause of almost all poultry outbreaks and some human cases in China.

"Up to now, the bird flu viruses selected from the south share a high uniformity," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference.

"There has no marked change in the biological characteristics of the organisms."

China has been the epicenter for bird flu since long and caters to a huge poultry population, which scientists fear may lead to a pandemic soon if nothing is done early.

Dozens of birds have been affected by this disease and at least 21 human cases, including 14 fatalities have been reported.

The WHO blames China for not sharing bird flu samples since 2004, thus hindering their effort to study and understand the virus, eliminating it completely.

"It's our understanding that there have been certain changes in the virus and continual evolution in the virus since 2004 and the viruses that we requested from 2005 have still not been shared with WHO," said Julie Hall.

She also said that China needs to keep the WHO au fait with small changes in the virus strains, so that they can understand better how the virus is developing.

"Whether it be dramatic or significant, it's about that regular understanding so that we can see that we're keeping on top of this," Hall said.

In 2003, Chinese health ministry was criticized for initially covering up the SARS virus which first emerged in its southern province of Guangdong, but the government has shielded its management of bird flu, saying it has been punctually reporting outbreaks.

Liu said China was maintaining "close cooperative relations" with the WHO and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation in dealing with H5N1.