VOA慢速英語:WHO says the H7N9 Bird Flu Virus is Unusually Dangerous for People

[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:03.08]this is the Health Report. [00:05.67]A World Health Organization official [00:09.51]says a new strain of avian influenza [00:13.00]is unusually dangerous for people. [00:16.44]Keiji Fakuda is the WHO's assistant director-general [00:22.34]for health security and environment. [00:25.59]He spoke to reporters in Beijing last week [00:29.13]about the H7N9 bird flu virus. [00:34.60]As of Monday, the virus had killed at least 24 people [00:40.50]on the Chinese mainland. [00:42.80]The country has recorded more than 120 cases of the disease. [00:48.72]The WHO sent a team of specialist to China last month [00:55.59]to learn more about the H7N9 virus. [01:00.47]Doctor Fakuda said there is still not enough evidence [01:05.01]to show it can spread easily from person to person. [01:09.44]"When we look at the influence of viruses, [01:11.63]this is unusually dangerous virus for humans... [01:14.22]Based on the evidence that we see we think that [01:17.96]this virus is more easily transmitted [01:20.80]from poultry to humans than H5N1." [01:24.24]The H5N1 bird flu virus first appeared in 2003, [01:30.67]it has killed more than half of the 622 people it has infected. [01:36.84]WHO and Chinese officials say the effort [01:42.27]to understand the new virus is still early. [01:45.96]Lian Wanliang is with National Health and Family Planning Commission, [01:53.08]he says the public health risk from the virus is not yet known. [01:58.91]Chinese and WHO scientists all agree that birds infected [02:06.08]by the H7N9 virus are the likely causes of human infection. [02:13.66]Most of these birds are poultry, like chickens. [02:17.84]The majority of deaths and infections from the virus [02:22.37]have been reported in Shanghai. [02:24.87]Officials there and in other cities [02:28.80]have closed down market for live poultry is sold. [02:33.43]Anne Kelson directs the WHO Flu Research center [02:39.42]in Melbourne, Australia. [02:41.82]She says the market closings appear to be helping. [02:46.35]"Now we know that Shanghai rapidly on April 6 [02:50.98]closed down their poultry markets in that municipality [02:55.57]and it's been very encouraging to see [02:59.20]that almost immediately there was a decline [03:02.19]in the detection of the new cases [03:04.03]and the cases that did occur all occurred in the next week, [03:08.42]which you might expect to be within the incubation period of the virus." [03:14.01]She says close observation of the effect of these closures [03:18.65]should continue over the next several weeks and months. [03:23.72]Chinese officials say more than half of those infected [03:28.30]have been individuals who had direct contact with poultry or other birds, [03:35.58]how the other people became infected with the virus is unclear. [03:41.34]The government has carried out thousands of tests on birds [03:45.67]but only a small percentage were infected. [03:50.11]And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English, [03:54.95]I'm Karen Leggett.

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