Strain of China bird flu virus delivered to Russia - Onishchenko
MOSCOW. May 14 (Interfax) - A strain of H7N9 bird flu, which has killed over 30 people in China, has been delivered to Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, head of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor and Russia's chief epidemiologist, told Interfax on Tuesday.
"We have received the strain and have already started to work with it," he said.
The research is being conducted by Rospotrebnadzor's Vektor State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnologies in Novosibirsk, he said.
"We will examine its qualities. It is highly important for us. We will have a chance to prepare a strain to make a vaccine. There is a whole action plan regarding this strain. We will put it into practice. The most important thing is that we have this strain. All countries are developing a vaccine. The question is which country will develop it sooner than others," Onishchenko said.
More than 30 people have already died of H7N9 bird flu of 130 reportedly infected in China.
Onishchenko told Interfax on May 12 that the flow of Russian tourists to China had decreased over the bird flu outbreak in the country.
"According to reports from Khabarovsk, the number of tourists has dropped sharply. People have responded to our warnings. However, the threat of flu spread by migratory birds [infected with the virus] remains. Ongoing migration processes potentially pose a threat of spreading the flu as well," Onishchenko said.
Onishchenko said on April 30 that China's bird flu outbreak would unlikely turn into a full-fledged pandemic.
"So far, the probability of such a pandemic is relatively low in such a very densely populated country like China, although this spread continues," he said.
Rospotrebnadzor is monitoring passengers who arrive from China.
Onishchenko told Interfax in mid-April that his agency might suspend poultry imports from China because of the bird flu.
