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TIMESWORLD
April 29 - May 5, 2013
33
Asia on guard
as bird flu
threat spreads
TAIPEI – Asian countries
urged renewed vigilance
against a spread of H7N9
bird flu last week after
Taiwan reported a case
of the deadly strain,
the world’s first outside
mainland China.
The self-governing island
on April 25 urged its
residents to take “enhanced
precautions” when visiting
China – placing Shanghai,
Beijing and five Chinese
provinces on particular alert
for travellers after at least
22 deaths were confirmed
there.
Taiwan’s Centers for
Disease Control (CDC)
confirmed on April 24 that a
53-year-old Taiwanese man,
who had been working in
the eastern Chinese city of
Suzhou, showed symptoms
three days after returning
home via Shanghai on
April 9. The man, who was
infected in China, has been
hospitalised since April 16
and is in a serious but stable
condition, it said.
There have been at
least 111 confirmed cases
of human infection with
H7N9 avian influenza
in China, including the
fatalities, figures from
Chinese authorities and the
World Health Organisation
showed on April 25.
State news agency Xinhua
reported early on April 26
that the eastern province
of Jiangxi had reported its
first case. Xinhua, citing
local health authorities,
said a 69-year-old man was
in a critical condition in
hospital.
On April 25, the WHO
maintained its global
advisory for combating the
bird flu, urging against
contact with live poultry
but not recommending any
restrictions against travel
to China.
The “enhanced
precautions” urged by
Taiwan’s CDC were in
line with WHO advice,
counselling people to avoid
going to poultry markets,
stay away from anyone
with a fever and eat only
thoroughly cooked bird
meat and eggs.
WHO experts said on
April 24 that H7N9 was a
particularly lethal influenza
virus but that there was
no proof yet of sustained
transmission between
humans.
Chinese researchers
reporting in The Lancet on
April 25 confirmed poultry
as a source of the virus
and also said they found no
evidence of person-to-person
transmission.
Asian nations stressed
they had measures in place,
pioneered during a deadly
outbreak of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) a decade ago. – AFP
Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers
search for survivors amid the rubble of a
collapsed eight-storey garment factory near
Dhaka on April 25. The death toll in the country’s
worst industrial accident rose to 324 early on
April 27. Full report, P. 38. Pic: AFP
Pressure increases on Obama over Syria
WASHINGTON – U S
President Barack Obama
issued a new warning to
Syria on April 26 that using
chemical weapons would be
a “game changer” as he faced
rising pressure at home and
abroad to intervene in the
civil war.
But a day after US
officials said they suspected
that the deadly agent sarin
had already been used in
small-scale attacks, Obama
warned Washington must
act prudently and establish
exactly if, how and when
such arms were used.
Obama, who had
previously told Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad
the use of chemical weapons
would cross a “red line,”
promised a “vigorous” US
and international probe into
the latest reports.
But he appeared wary of
launching military action
based on initial intelligence
reports of chemical weapons
use, even as other official
comments and media
suggested that is exactly
what had happened.
Obama did reiterate that
the use of chemical weapons
would be “a game changer,”
as he met Jordan’s King
Abdullah II in the Oval
Office.
“I think all of us, not
just in the United States
but around the world,
recognise how we cannot
stand by and permit the
systematic use of weapons
like chemical weapons on
civilian populations,” he
said.
But the US leader, who
has been reluctant to plunge
the US military into action
in Syria after extricating
it from Iraq, warned: “We
have to act prudently. We
have to make assessments
deliberately.”
Adding to the political
pressure on Obama, the
Syrian opposition urged the
UN Security Council to take
immediate steps, possibly
even by imposing a no-fly
zone.
And British Prime
Minister David Cameron
said the growing evidence
that Assad had turned
chemical agents on his
own people was “extremely
serious.”
The fighting in Syria,
which the UN says has left
more than 70,000 dead since
March 2011, showed no
signs of abating on April 26,
with fresh clashes outside
the capital, Damascus, and
elsewhere throughout the
country. – AFP