Meanwhile, no human cases have been reported since May 8, keeping the number of cases at 131. No new deaths have been reported since May 15, holding the number to 36.
China's agriculture ministry said today he has "basically" finished collecting and testing samples of 899 758 across the country, Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported today. Of that number 53 were positive for H7N9 virus, all but two of them from 18 different markets in the city of live-poultry Shanghai and eight provinces: Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Fujian.
Positive samples from the remaining two pigeons. One is the wild pigeons of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, one domestic and the other is from another city in the same province.
None of the positive samples came from farms or pig.
Agriculture ministry statement said the exposure of poultry markets pose the most danger to humans and that the farms must increase efforts to guard against viruses, according to the Xinhua report.
Findings bird market
Meanwhile, a team of Chinese and World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) surveyed the impact of the closure of live-poultry markets in the wake of the outbreak of H7N9 human cases and concluded that the officials declined sharply after the market closed. Their findings appear in the current issue of the Western Pacific Surveillance and Response Journal.
The researchers focused their sights on the closing market in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces plus. For example, Shanghai officials unveiled steps on Apr 6, which also includes culling poultry at wholesale markets and environmental disinfection of poultry. The researchers noted that the incidence of the disease from infected patients from the city last April 13.
They found a similar pattern when they look at the market close in three cities in four provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. The last case was reported from the cities that have a market closure is 17 April, according to the report.
Drop-off in the case of humans support the hypothesis that the live-bird markets are a major source of virus in the region, but the group's surveillance data in the coming days will show if the control measures are very helpful in other provinces.
The researchers also noted that further studies are needed to measure whether a certain behavior at the poultry market workers or visitors put them at greater risk of H7N9 infection.
Health officials should consider the benefits and drawbacks to extend or make permanent closure of live-poultry market, with decisions tailored to the local situation and needs, the team concludes.
Rapid tests for H7N9 overdrawn
In another development, researchers from Australia and the Netherlands tested six influenza rapid tests are widely available to see how they would be useful for the detection of H7N9 infection in a clinical setting and found that they probably will not detect most cases, especially at the end of the course the disease.
The team reported its findings yesterday in Eurosurveillance.
When real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the gold standard for the detection of a new virus, but tests for H7N9 may not be available in settings where infection occurs. They also require a fairly high level of laboratory expertise.
The researchers, therefore, eager to see if the rapid test would be a useful addition to identifying infections, especially in resource-limited areas.
The group tested the ability of a test to detect the H7N9 virus and compared the performance in detecting some other flu viruses, including three low-pathogenic H7 strain of avian another, two seasonal human H3N2 virus, and two 2009 H1N1 virus.
Testing found that four of the six test sensitivity is lower for H7N9 than seasonal flu virus and other strains of H7 bird flu. For all viruses tested, test point-of-care Sofia, which uses automated reader, has the highest sensitivity. The Clearview and SD Bioline test had a sensitivity of the poorest.
They concluded that RT-PCR is still the best method for testing suspected H7N9 patients.
Virus vaccine candidate
In front of preparedness, WHO said yesterday that the two candidate H7N9 vaccine viruses are now available, increasing the total to four. Candidate vaccine viruses developed for routine flu viruses that have pandemic potential.
Although no decision has been made to produce a vaccine against the new virus, scientists can use the virus candidate to start the first step in making the vaccine, which can speed up the process in case one is needed.
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