By Friday, all people having been in close contact with the new bird flu case confirmed Tuesday in east China's Anhui Province showed no abnormal symptoms, said sources with the Department of Health of Anhui Province.

All 37 people who had contact with the poultry that died of the deadly epidemic or who raised poultry at the farm reporting the bird flu case in Juchao district, Chaohu city of Anhui Province, have been registered and put under close medical observation, said an official with the provincial Department of Health.

"Their temperature will be taken and their health state will be reported to the provincial disease control center daily, all of which have been put under the duty of specially appointed people," said the official.

According to Zhou Shiqi, the general agronomist of the agricultural committee of Anhui Province, when the chickens began to die in large numbers, the owner of the farm made an immediate report to the epidemic prevention section at the basic level.

After being confirmed by the provincial agricultural committee as suspected bird flu, the provincial government quarantined the infected spot and began to cull poultry and disinfect the infected spot while they sent the suspected cases to the Ministry of Agriculture, said Zhou.

After the deaths were confirmed to be caused by H5N1, a highly pathogenic bird flu virus, the provincial government started an emergency plan. As a result, all poultry within a radius of three kilometers of the infected spot were culled, disinfected and buried deeply, and poultry within five kilometers were give compulsory immunization.

"Not only all poultry nearby the infected spot were culled, but also the henhouse and feeding stuff were disinfected. And as the location of the poultry farm is naturally isolated by mountains and fields, the transmission possibility of the highly infectious disease is greatly reduced," said Zhou.

"So far, no new cases of bird flu were reported, which shows that the infection of the disease has been kept under control," said Zhou.

For this reason, the official with the provincial Department of Health held that the spread of the disease to humans was basically impossible.

"But we still kept on high alert to stem the epidemic from spreading to humans," he said.

A supervision and daily reporting system have been established on patients having influenza symptoms, or having unidentified fever nearby the infected spot.

Furthermore, substantial efforts have been taken to step up supervision of drinking water and food of local residents and instruction for environmental and individual sanitation nearby the infected spot.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2004)