all live poultry imports even from the Chinese mainland have been suspended

Hong Kong is undertaking amassive effort to slaughter all of live poultry that is found in the street markets after a number of birds have tested positive for the dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus. Health officials in Hong Kong said that they had detected the avian virus in four different poultry markets. 

The health authorities tested not only the live bird markets but also local chicken farms as well as distribution centres which were found to be in the clear but nevertheless they reckoned that the only way to properly stop the virus was to cull all the birds.

Health officials said that they did not know how many bird would need to be killed but report showed that almost 3,000 have already been killed in one outdoor market and it is estimated that thousands and thousands more will need to be destroyed to prevent the spread of the virus.

In a very tight knit community like Hong Kong the danger of the bird flu virus spreading to humans is significant. At present the virus is not very contagious between chickens and humans but very close contact can cause the virus to infect humans and in this case the chances of surviving are less than 50 percent.

Dr. Chow who is the Secretary for Food and Health said that all live poultry imports even from the Chinese mainland had been suspended in view of this crisis and that the suspension could last as long as three weeks if the situation did not resolve.

Mr. Tsang who is the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection announced that medications (probably Tamiflu) would be given to anyone who had been in close proximity with infected birds and that free health checkups would be available to all people who worked with live animals. He also said that doctors in the region should be vigilant and quickly report any suspected incidences of the H5N1 bird flu virus in humans.