Chinese media promise ‘very low’ risk of spreading bird flu

Chinese state media on Thursday said the chances of bird flu spreading were “very low” after a man in southwest China who contracted it was hospitalized.

The 55-year-old man from Sichuan province contracted a case of H5N6, also known as “bird flu”, after testing positive for the virus on July 6. Her symptoms included a fever as early as June 30, according to CGTN. , a media controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

“According to the expert assessment, the risks of large-scale spread of the virus are very low,” reassured readers, while noting that the Chinese authorities had “activated an emergency response and sterilized the area”.

Only eight cases of the virus in Asia have been reported to the World Health Organization since 2015, including one patient who died. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted in a study published last year that humans who contracted the virus had a 67% death rate. The figure for Covid-19, on the other hand, ranged from 2% in December to 7% in the first months of the pandemic.

CGTN, which is headquartered in Beijing and maintains a US office in Washington, DC, also made headlines during Covid-19 for promoting conspiracy theories on this virus – including the one who suggested that the virus started in France or the United States.

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