8th human case of bird flu reported

China's Ministry of Health yesterday announced the country's eighth human case of H5N1 bird flu.

The infected patient was a 6-year-old boy surnamed Ouyang in Guiyang County of Central China's Hunan Province, according to a report released by the ministry.

The infected boy is being hospitalized and his condition is stable, the ministry said.

Investigation found domestic foul raised by Ouyang's family had died before he showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on December 24, the ministry said.

Ouyang's samples tested positive for the H5N1 virus by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of China, said the ministry.

Ouyang has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization and the Chinese Government, the ministry said.

Trial of made-in-China vaccine

The first round clinical trial of the made-in-China human vaccine against the H5N1 strain of avian flu is expected to be completed this April, an expert announced yesterday.

The clinical trial will let doctors know whether the vaccine is effective and safe, Lin Jiangtao, a doctor from the Beijing-based China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said.

Dr Lin is in charge of carrying out the first round trials, which started on December 21, 2005, in his hospital among 120 volunteers.

These healthy volunteers, aged between 18 and 60 and all from Beijing, will be separated into four groups.

In each group, six people will be given the vaccine first. If they show no adverse symptoms, like serious allergy, the other 24 people of the group will be administered with the drug.

Currently, all the volunteers in the first group and the first six people from the second group have taken the vaccine and have not shown any adverse results, Lin noted. The other 24 people of the second group will take the vaccine this week.

All the volunteers will take the vaccine within two months if there are no unhealthy indications observed during the process. Before April, 2006, a test will be performed on blood samples taken from all the volunteers. The test will aim to check whether an antibody has developed in the bodies of the volunteers, Lin noted.