ImagineChina
Health officials in Beijing have vowed to improve public communication over a lesser-known strain of bird flu which has claimed four lives since February.
Following talks with officials from the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), China's Health Ministry said it was conducting rigorous tests to determine the extent of people infected with the H7N9 avian influenza strain.
"[We] will continue to maintain communication with the WHO and relevant countries, as well as local governments, in an open and transparent manner," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
The statement follows online criticism at a three-week delay in announcing the first two cases of the virus, which first came to light in February.
"[We will also] boost testing and scientific prevention measures," it said.
The statement also came as Japan and Hong Kong stepped up vigilance against the virus and Vietnam banned imports of Chinese poultry.
The new H7N9 bird flu strain does not appear to be transmitted from human to human but authorities in Hong Kong raised a preliminary alert and said they were taking precautions at the airport.
China victims
A total of 11 people in China have been confirmed to have contracted H7N9, all in the east of the country.
Another person died on Thursday, in Shanghai, bringing the number of deaths to four, state media said. Xinhua news agency said the victim was a 48-year-old man who worked delivering poultry.
A 64-year-old man from Huzhou in the eastern province of Zhejiang died after he was admitted to hospital on March 31.
A woman surnamed Zhou who works in the same market in Nanjing as one of the confirmed cases, Xu Wenqin, said the authorities had sprayed the entire market with disinfectant on Tuesday.
"We had the health and disease prevention teams from Nanjing city hall and the Jiangning district government come to the market, for a clean-up and disinfection," Zhou said. "Everyone has had their blood taken for testing."
She said Xu's was the only chicken stall in the market, which is a general trading market not dedicated to poultry.
"It didn't open," Zhou said. "The chicken cages are quite close to all the other stalls."
She said officials had told them to continue cleaning and disinfecting on their own account.
Intense suspicion
Chinese public health procedures have come under intense scrutiny and suspicion since an official attempt to cover up the extent of the deadly SARS epidemic of 2003 was exposed by a military doctor in Beijing.
The doctor was detained for several months in 2004 at an undisclosed location, while editors at a newspaper in the southern province of Guangdong that broke news about the SARS virus were also harassed and detained.
Liaoning-based writer and activist Jiang Lijun said all eyes were now on the government to see if it kept its promises.
"This virus is very dangerous. It's about as dangerous as the SARS epidemic of 2003," Jiang said in an interview on Wednesday.
"We call on the Health Ministry to report the situation with this disease accurately to the entire nation, and to the rest of the world," Jiang said.
"The Chinese government should be on a high level of alert, because the whole world is watching, as well as civil organizations within China," he said.
Zhong Nanshan, who heads the Guangzhou Respiratory Diseases Research Institute in the southern province of Guangdong, said there had been few links established between cases in eastern China so far, unlike the beginning of the SARS epidemic.
"This time there are few signs of infection [between humans]," Zhong said. "I don't think this will become a huge epidemic."
"Even if a lot more cases emerge, I don't think that will be strange, because there are a great number of pneumonia cases every day in mainland China whose cause and origin aren't known."
Zhong said genetic analysis had shown that the virus came from poultry, but that there was no need yet for a nationwide warning to go out, nor for a new vaccine.
'Scared to death'
The sudden emergence of fatal avian influenza cases has fueled concerns among ordinary Chinese that the government might not be telling all it knows, however.
A Hangzhou resident surnamed Jiang said she was worried that the death rate in Zhejiang appeared to be higher than in Shanghai, and at the lack of information on the source of the virus.
"Right now we don't yet know the infection route taken by the virus, and it looks a lot like the beginning of the SARS epidemic," she said.
"My husband has to go to eastern China a lot on on business, and he says he hasn't seen the authorities step up any sort of control or prevention measures."
"I am scared to death," she said.
An official who answered the phone at the Zhejiang provincial health department declined to comment, however.
"I don't really know. You should call the emergency office, but they have already gone home."
In Hong Kong, which was hard hit by SARS, health officials said they were on full alert for incoming cases from eastern China.
"We have very large influxes of people [from China], and we can't rule out the possibility that someone from eastern China could be infected with this disease," Ko Wing Man, Hong Kong secretary for food and health, told reporters.
"They could get to Hong Kong before they become symptomatic, so we are paying special attention to the situation," he said.
Meanwhile, authorities in Japan put up posters in airports warning all airline passengers from China to seek medical attention if they suspect they have bird flu.
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin service, and by Fung Yat-yiu for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
