Photo: Xinhua

By Wen Xin (温鈊)
Issue 616, Apr 22, 2013
Nation, page 10
Translated by Chi Yi
Original article: [Chinese]

By Apr 18, the number of reported H7N9 cases in Beijing was officially still just one.

The patient, a seven-year-old girl, had been deemed cured and left the hospital the previous day. Contrary to the provinces further south that were initially affected by the virus, Beijing has launched proactive epidemic prevention measures to monitor high risk groups, which will gradually be expanded to include the general population.

First Case Cured

“When she was sent to the hospital her condition was deteriorating very quickly,” said Chen Zhihai (陈志海), director of the Infectious Disease Center at Beijing’s Ditan Hospital.

Yuanyuan (小圆圆) was diagnosed with H7N9 on Apr 13 after she’d developed flu symptoms including fever, cough, sore throat and a headache.

The child received the flu medicine Tamiflu 15 hours after the onset of symptoms. 10 hours later, she started to recover and Beijing’s first H7N9 case was soon cured.

Top Level Emergency Plan

With the number of infections going up, China has introduced a public payment system. The National Health and Family Planning Commission announced that the treatment costs of H7N9 patients will be covered by medical insurance. For early stage patients like Yuanyuan, the treatment cost can hardly be seen as burden. “I don’t know the exact number, but treatment is affordable for any family,” said Chen Zhihai.

To lower the risk of infection and lighten the burden for patients, Beijing launched its highest “Level Four” emergency plan, originally designed for virus outbreaks that have human-to-human transmission.

Random inspections have been carried out in high risk areas with agricultural industries and live poultry like Miyun, Yanqing and Huairou. Beijing gradually moved from random inspections to testing the entire high risk population. By 3pm on Apr 18, Beijing had tested 775,004 people for the virus. Among the 27 people found with lung infections, only young Yuanyuan was confirmed to have H7N9; though another four-year-old boy without symptoms has since tested positive for the virus in Beijing. 

Now testing is extending to the rest of the general population.

Beijing has a stock of 3,000 boxes of Tamiflu. “We need to know more about H7N9,” said Chen Zhihai. “Can it be transmitted from human-to-human? How strong is the virus’s ability to cause disease? We’re not sure yet, so we’ve upgraded the protection level in hospitals.”

Statistics from the Ministry of Health showed that by Apr 24, the number of people diagnosed with H7N9 had reached 108, 22 of whom have died.