China on Saturday stepped up its efforts to contain the spread of the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus, which has already claimed six lives in the country, by banning the sale of poultry in three cities and culling more than 20,000 birds.
Sale of poultry was suspended in Nanjing and Hangzhou along with China’s biggest city, Shanghai as a total of 18 cases were reported resulting in six deaths, as the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus spreads rapidly in the eastern part of the country.
The ban came after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that while it was determined so far that the virus would not spread from human to human, it could spread from the dust particles from infected poultry markets.
China has confirmed 18 H7N9 cases — eight in Shanghai, six in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui, in the first known human infections of the lesser-known strain. Hong Kong too reported one case.
Six people, four in Shanghai and two in Zhejiang province have died due to the virus, which has no cure yet.
Zhejiang’s provincial capital of Hangzhou, and Jiangsu’s provincial capital of Nanjing have suspended live poultry trading and ordered the culling of thousands of birds in the main markets on Saturday.
Shanghai was the first to close its live poultry markets and banned all live poultry from other parts of the country from entering the city. Two fresh cases of H7N9 were reported by the local Government. Two men aged 66 and 74 years were confirmed to have been infected with the deadly strain in China’s largest city Shanghai, which has over 23 million people.