Deadly tide of birds in HK fuels fears of H5N1 cover-up

With each day that passes, more dead birds, ducks and chickens washed up on the beaches of Hong Kong, suggesting that H5N1-infected birds may have been dumped into the China's polluted Pearl River and carried by the tide to Hong Kong waters.

China has insisted there are no bird-flu outbreaks in China, despite eight human cases in January alone this year.

But experts fear the tide of death washing out of southern China shows that China is once again covering up another major public health catastrophe.

It happened before in 2003, when Beijing denied the existence of the deadly condition that became known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome — or SARS — until it had crossed the border into Hong Kong where it went on to spread worldwide infecting thousands and killing hundreds.

It happened again last year when state newspapers were initially ordered to keep quiet about a scandal which lead to many thousands of young children falling sick and seven dying after drinking baby milk tainted with the chemical melamine.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), China has recorded a total of 38 bird-flu cases since the disease resurfaced in 2003, including 25 deaths. Five people died in China of bird flu in January alone, two more than in the whole of 2008. Three other people were infected.

So far more than 20 dead birds have been found on Hong Kong beaches within the last week. Six of the birds have so far tested positive for the H5N1 virus strain.

However, there are no current outbreaks in Hong Kong nor are there any farms close to the sites where the infected birds were discovered.

Together, these facts are causing concern in Hong Kong which boasts arguably the world's most stringent bird flu detection and prevention measures, introduced after 1997 when the former British colony witnessed the first modern incident of the virus crossing the species barrier when it infected 18 people of which six died.

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