Further human cases of bird flu

Two more people were being treated for bird flu over the weekend as China warned of a possible large scale outbreak of the H5N1 strain among birds. State media reported that the two new human cases were a girl in eastern Zhejiang province and a woman farmer in nearby Anhui province. Both were said to have come into contact with infected poultry. Meanwhile, the State Council released a plan to deal with sudden public health accidents such as major infectious diseases and serious cases of food poisoning. According to official sources, China culled 23 million fowl last year, of which 163,000 were carrying the H5N1 virus. So far eight people have died of bird flu out of the country's 14 human cases.