China steps up bird flu monitoring, WHO still worried
Reuters
May 10, 2006

China has stepped up monitoring for bird flu in the remote northwestern province of Qinghai, state media said on Wednesday, as the WHO said it remained concerned and that now was not the time to be complacent.

Health authorities have tightened controls in Yushu county, about 500 miles from the provincial capital Xining, where an outbreak of the H5N1 strain among wild birds was reported last week, Xinhua news agency said.
Qinghai has become a major focus for scientists studying mutations of the H5N1 virus.

A year ago, scientists believe a mutated form of the virus killed thousands of wild birds at Qinghai Lake, a major stop-off point for migratory birds in the province's barren northeast. Soon after the mass die-off of birds in late April and May 2005, the virus rapidly spread West to Europe and then to the Middle East and Africa, underscoring the importance of monitoring what's happening at the lake, and elsewhere in China.

The WHO (World Health Organization) says the Qinghai Lake form of the H5N1 virus is almost identical to the strain found in recent outbreaks in Nigeria, Iraq, and Turkey.