Sunday, July 24, 2005

Unknown Illness Kills Nine Chinese Farmers

Deaths Could Be Linked to Outbreaks of Bird Flu in Nine Asian Countries
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page A18

BEIJING, July 23 -- An unidentified disease has killed nine farmers and sickened 11 others in a rural part of China's western Sichuan province, prompting the government to dispatch an emergency team of researchers to investigate whether the deaths are related to bird flu, a Health Ministry spokesman said Saturday.

State media said the illnesses occurred between June 24 and July 21 in about 15 villages surrounding the city of Ziyang, 945 miles southwest of Beijing. All of the farmers had recently slaughtered sick pigs or sheep, and researchers from the health and agriculture ministries are investigating a possible link, the official New China News Agency said.


LINK

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home