China is mixing deadly H5N1 bird flu viruses with H1N1 swine flu viruses. You heard that right. The virus can already be passed between guinea pigs, which are used in these experiments as some sort of guinea pigs. They are making pigs and birds science-bone each other until they come up with some sort of superbug. A dangerous superbug that could potentially wipe out millions of lives, and the scientific community is condemning them for this “appalling irresponsibility.”

To that, I have one thing to say: awesome. Good on ya, China scientists. The odds of learning something useful in these studies are slim. However, SCIENCE!

SCIENCE! is the main reason they should be allowed to do it. The second reason is that, if they are doing it, how about everybody try not to piss off the dude holding the real-life version of the game Prototype in his hands.

Lord May of Oxford (to be known as Duke Big Vagina of Wimptown) says in the Independent, “They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever.”

Good. If history has taught us anything, scientists should be allowed to do whatever they want until something blows up/catches on fire/all the firstborn die. When that happens, it may be time to rein it in a bit, maybe.

Science knows no borders, no orthodoxy.

Yes, there are risks. Yes, they could weaponize it. Yes, it could kill millions. Yes, they could end up bringing about The Walking Dead (the comic book version; eat a dick AMC). There are a lot of worst-case scenarios. But the best-case scenario is some awesome scientist like Jonas Salk ruling over us with his benevolent virus-holding hand, a hand that smells of monkey kidneys.

Also, I bought my first touch screen phone like a year ago.

BORED! BORED! BORED! I’ve finished all the Angry Birds, even the Star Wars game. Bring on the genetically engineered stuff. An iSquirrel or the Googlerabbit. What is a Googlerabbit? I don’t know. Science will make one though.

Please, science, more things. More books. More knowledge. More shiny things. More escalators. Mankind’s obsession with learning will eventually destroy us. But I can’t think of a better way to go than some sort of Scientific Ragnarok.

Read more TAR Nation here.

The family involves two brothers and their 87-year-old father, who died on March 4 and was reportedly China’s first human death from H7N9.

The elder son, who has recovered from the disease, was previously confirmed to have contracted the virus, the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission said on Wednesday at a media briefing.

Although we shouldn’t worry (there’s always a reason to not worry…):

Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist with China CDC, said people infected with H7N9 can transmit the virus within a period of time, in which they could possibly infect others.

“But that’s highly rare and could be limited to within a family,” Feng said, explaining that only genetically vulnerable groups like close family members might be get infected.

The ability of the virus to spread among people is very weak, so transmission cannot spread beyond one person, he added. That belief is based on experience and studies with other bird flu strains such as H5N1.

“People don’t need to panic, because such limited human-to-human transmission won’t prompt a pandemic,” he said.

Michael O’Leary, the World Health Organization’s China representative, agreed and said there is no evidence to date of sustained or efficient human-to-human transmission, which would pose a real risk of a pandemic.

As of yesterday, there were 82 cases of human infections and 17 deaths. Not a pandemic… yet.

Authorities test family infected by H7N9 (China Daily)

The virus keeps getting more evolved, too. (Or something?) Beijing’s second case of H7N9 was a carrier who displayed no symptoms: this boy of four years old. The latest, via Reuters, is equally disturbing, if you’re the type who’s disturbed by such things:

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl confirmed that “there are people who have no history of contact with poultry”, after a top Chinese scientist was quoted as saying that about 40 percent of those with the H7N9 virus had had no contact with fowl.

“This is one of the puzzles still (to) be solved and therefore argues for a wide investigation net,” Hartl said in emailed comments, though he added he did not know the exact percentage.

Also, if this matters at all, five new cases of bird flu were “diagnosed retrospectively.”

There are many more than 77 cases of bird flu, in other words. It’s not enough to start avoiding fresh air and chicken altogether, but as Xinhua says, “The H7N9 cases may keep increasing until the pollution sources are under effective control.”

Still no human-to-human transmission yet.

The boy’s parents, traders of poultry and fish, voluntarily went in to Beijing’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for tests recently. Only the boy’s came back positive.

The health bureau has sent him to Ditan Hospital for monitoring.

As of last night, Xinhua reports there have been 60 confirmed cases of H7N9, with 13 deaths. (The four-year-old boy is not counted in those 60.) Shanghai has reported the most cases, with 24 (nine fatalities).

Meanwhile, a World Health Organization official said what we’ve been saying all along: the disease most certainly should spread. Reports AP: “It’s not the case that everyone confirmed to be infected with H7N9 was ‘clustered in one small area with the same source of exposure,’ said Michael O’Leary, head of WHO’s office in China. ‘So we’ve been expecting new cases to occur. … Furthermore, we still expect that there will be other cases.’”

All that matters for now: still no human-to-human transmission.

(H/T Alicia)

Liu Yaqing, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture, at a Beijing press conference (April 13, 2013, Xinhua/Li Wen)

It was only a matter of time, and it’s somewhat surprising it’s taken this long. Xinhua reports that a seven-year-old girl in Beijing was infected with H7N9, confirmed earlier today after a test by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The girl reported symptoms on Thursday, but after checking into the hospital, she is reportedly in stable condition.

The child received the drug Tamiflu as well as intravenous drips on Thursday night and later was transferred to an intensive care unit after condition worsened. After an oxygen therapy and other treatment, her suffocation and coughing symptoms eased markedly and body temperature fell to 37 degrees Celsius from 40.2 degrees Celsius, a spokesman with the Beijing Ditan Hospital said.

There have been 44 cases of bird flu in China, with 11 deaths. The virus has still shown no ability to jump from human hosts to other humans, so that remains comforting.

China Daily reported yesterday that people carrying the virus may have entered Beijing earlier in the week; two days ago, it also reported that a Beijing hospital denied rumors of receiving bird flu patients. (Don’t spread rumors: you might get detained.) Who knows. But the relevant agencies have been transparent enough through this saga, if not always quick on the ball (netizens have been clamoring for daily updates), so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Not that it really matters. Until the human-to-human infections are possible, the chances of you or I getting this flu are slim. It’s your move, avian influenza. Mutate away.

Beijing reports first case of H7N9 infection (Xinhua)

UPDATE, 3:51 pm: Pictures of the girl in quarantine, via NetEase:

[Disclaimer: This post was supposed to be about my general experience with the medicine banlan'gen. However, I just finished a course on traditional Chinese medicine and couldn't help presenting the results of some quick research.]

It really is amazing what people believe: A few years ago, everyone started eating eggplant after a quack TCM doctor said it was the new panacea; after the Fukushima meltdown, iodized salt was sold out as people rushed to prevent radiation poisoning, never realizing that iodized salt contains such miniscule amounts of iodine that you would first die before getting enough into your system; and now, after several provincial health authorities recommended it to prevent H7N9 infections, people are rushing to buy the traditional Chinese medical remedy for colds and flus, ban lan gen (板蓝根, sometimes rendered as banlan’gen).

While the World Health Organization has been quite positive about the Chinese government’s response to the outbreak of the newest avian flu, the Chinese people themselves remain skeptical. Certainly when officials recommend a treatment with no scientific backing, we really do have to question whether these people know what they’re talking about.

Ban lan gen has been around for quite a long time. The first recorded mention of it comes from the Huangdi Neijing 黄帝内经, written sometime between the late Warring States Period (475-221 BCE) and the early Han Dynasty 206 BCE – 220 CE), where the author(s) recommend it as an anti-viral and anti-bacterial treatment:

It can prevent disease when there is none. When there is disease it can treat it… It eliminates toxins from the body, boosts the immune system, fights bacterial and viral infections, and balances yin and yang… It clears heat, but does not damage the Spleen and Stomach.

However, as you can quite imagine, germ theory did not exist at this time. When they say “bacterial” and “viral,” they really mean something very different. It wasn’t until Mao Zedong declared that Chinese and Western should be integrated that physicians began to prescribe ban lan gen for colds and flus.

In the vocabulary of Chinese medicine, most types of colds and flus are usually caused by Wind entering the body. Amazingly enough, in pre-modern TCM, it is recommended that people NOT take ban lan gen for Wind-type “pathogens,” as it might actually worsen the condition.

In and of itself, ban lan gen, of all Chinese medicines I’ve tried, has to be the easiest to drink. Most commonly sold as a pellet/powder, it dissolves easily in hot water and tastes almost sweet. Current Chinese wisdom says that you should take it as soon as you start experiencing cold or flu symptoms, as it’s best as a preventative measure. Much of this can be explained by its marketing as an anti-viral and anti-bacterial treatment, since actual TCM doctors will not recommend this for their patients suffering from a cold or flu. (It is good for, however, for sore throats, as it can help clear “heat,” i.e., inflammation and infection.)

Given all this, it’s completely stupid and irresponsible for health authorities to recommend this nostrum, and even TCM says you shouldn’t take it for ANY flu, much less in the case of a swine or avian pandemic.

John Artman has been China watching and covering tech since 2010. Follow him @KnowsNothing.

You asked for it — you, Jeff Crosby — so here you go: chengguan chases chicken, set to Boots Randolph’s Yakety Sax. Go, chengguan, go.

The director of Shanghai’s agriculture commission, Sun Lei , said it would consider a public consultation on a permanent ban for the live-poultry trade, after 20 samples taken from wet markets tested positive for H7N9, according to the Oriental Morning Post.

A total of 7,185 samples were collected by yesterday and included pigeons, chickens and feathers, the Shanghai Evening News reported. More than 111,000 birds have been culled in the city since Thursday.

These chengguan might be practicing for nothing.

Meanwhile, death toll update: we’re up to nine, after two more perished yesterday — an 83-year-old man from Suzhou, Jiangsu province and a 35-year-old woman from Chuzhou, Anhui province. There have been 29 reported cases.

Rumors continue, meanwhile, about bird flu cover-ups in Beijing, with people saying someone checked into a hospital with bird flu symptoms. It wouldn’t surprise us, to be honest. This city is too big, with too many people from all across the country, for there not to have been at least one case.

It’s not official though, and despite scary stories about how the virus can “mutate eight times faster than regular flu,” there’s still no indication that it can spread from human to human. Hang in there, chicken lovers.

Shanghai considers permanent ban on sale of live poultry (SCMP)

UPDATE, 6:58 pm: Huh, you know how I just wrote about bird flu rumors? Authorities really don’t want people doing that, i.e. writing about rumors. Via Reuters:

Chinese police detained at least 10 people for spreading rumors about the H7N9 bird flu, state media said on Wednesday, as the death toll from the new strain of the virus rose to nine.

Authorities detained the people in six provinces — Shaanxi, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Fujian — some of whom had posted “fake information” online about new cases of the virus in their areas, the official Xinhua news agency said.

It’s curious, isn’t it, how news of bird flu cases and deaths all seem to have originated from government mouthpieces. If you see someone drop dead of H7N9 symptoms, don’t tell anyone. The government has to run it by their press department first.

This is just practice, says the video description. In the real world, a chengguan’s inability to nab a scurrying chicken could result in the proliferation of that killer virus, H7N9 bird flu. Go, chenguan, go. We trust you.

UPDATE, 4/11, 12:56 am: Inevitably, we’ve set the video to the Benny Hill theme song:

Your H7N9 avian influenza roundup, because there’s too much for the links post. We now have at least 18 cases of bird flu, by the way.

Bad news first:

A 64-year-old man in Shanghai became the seventh Chinese who have died from the H7N9 avian flu, local authorities reported on Monday.

— Xinhua News Agencyさん (@XHNews) 2013年4月8日

And this:

H7N9 Cases Rising by an Average of Three a Day:twitpic.com/chw411

— Michael McDonoughさん (@M_McDonough) 2013年4月8日

But good news! “China has approved a new type of flu drug that it believes may be effective in treating H7N9 bird flu virus.” (Xinhua)

And recovery is possible. “A four-year-old boy who was confirmed to be infected with the H7N9 bird flu on Thursday has recovered, a disease control and prevention official said Monday.” (Xinhua)

Confidence matters, maybe. “China is confident it can control an outbreak of a new strain of bird flu, a senior Chinese health official said on Sunday as the World Health Organization (WHO) said there had now been 21 human cases of the H7N9 flu with six deaths. // China has said it is mobilizing resources nationwide to combat the new strain, monitoring hundreds of close contacts of confirmed cases and culling tens of thousands of birds where traces of the virus were found.” (Reuters)

China closes Nanjing poultry market. “In response, Chinese authorities have extended a ban on poultry trading to the city of Nanjing, having earlier closed markets in Shanghai. // China’s state-run news agency Xinhua said authorities had already culled tens of thousands of birds at two Shanghai poultry markets, where traces of the virus had been found earlier in the week. // Local officials in Nanjing said the virus had not been detected at its poultry markets, suggesting the trading ban is a precaution.” (BBC)

Disputed, but:

It appears that weibo posts about #H7N9 are being deleted as quickly as the disease is spreading: freeweibo.com/en/weibo/H7N9

— GreatFire.orgさん (@GreatFireChina) 2013年4月8日

Finally…

Via Flickr

A senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army apparently thinks the H7N9 avian flu virus is an American biological weapon unleashed for the suppression of the Chinese people, or something. As relayed by SCMP’s Patrick Boehler:

“The national leadership should not pay too much attention to it,” Dai Xu, senior colonel with the People’s Liberation Army’s air force and lecturer at the National Defence University, wrote on his Sina Weibo micro-blog on Saturday. “Or else, it’ll be like in 2003 with Sars!”

One’s first reaction is that not paying attention to it is precisely “like in 2003 with SARS,” and that’s terrible. But Dai clarifies:

At that time, America was fighting in Iraq and feared that China would take advantage of the opportunity to take other actions. This is why they used bio-psychological weapons against China. All of China fell into turmoil and that was exactly what the US wanted. Now, the US is using the same old trick. China should have learned its lesson and should calmly deal with the problem.

Crazy? Surely his Sina Weibo account was hacked, right?

Dai was unapologetic in his reply on Sunday. “It is common knowledge that a group of people in China have been injected with mental toxin by the US,”he wrote.

“Now, a group of fake American devils are attacking me,” he wrote in another post. “I will not retreat even half a step.”

We hate to break this to him, but people in America, devil or not, real or fake, generally do not care to reply to, much less attack, crazy people’s opinions.

But Dai did accompish something. Since his tirade, he’s gained 40,000 followers on Sina Weibo.

PLA officer calls H7N9 virus a US ‘bio-psychological weapon’ (SCMP)

This was going in tonight’s links post, but why wait?

20,000 chickens culled. “Officials have closed Shanghai’s poultry market and slaughtered more than 20,000 birds as the death toll from a new outbreak of bird flu rose to six.” (Guardian)

Yes, six. “According to the health bureau, the 64-year-old man surnamed Zhang, who is a peasant farmer of Huzhou City, died at hospital after rescue efforts failed on Thursday night and it was confirmed he was infected with the H7N9 strain. // So far, 55 people who had a close contact with Zhang have shown no abnormal symptoms.” (Xinhua)

According to Shanghai officials, the city will temporarily close all 460 of its poultry markets starting tomorrow. #H7N9

— Rob Schmitzさん (@rob_schmitz) 2013年4月5日

Hong Kong. “The seven-year-old has become the first suspected case of the H7N9 bird flu virus in Hong Kong. // The girl has now been put in an isolation ward in Queen Elizabeth Hospital for further observation to confirm whether she has contracted the virus.” (SCMP)

Panic! “Hong Kong shares finished a holiday-shortened week at their lowest close since Nov. 28, as fears of a bird flu outbreak sparked a broad selloff, and further falls looked possible after the benchmark index broke below a key technical support.” (Reuters)

Good news though: “The World Health Organization said on Friday there was no sign of “sustained human-to-human transmission” of the H7N9 virus in China, but it was important to check on 400 people who had been in close contact with the 14 confirmed cases.” (Reuters)

Peter Griffin vs. chicken interlude:

Hang in there, folks. Maybe postpone your chicken-coup field trip for the meantime.

A third death has been confirmed from H7N9 avian influenza: a man from Zhejiang province perished yesterday after falling sick earlier in the week.

In light of that, Xinhua has issued a public advisory urging people to not slaughter poultry during Tomb-Sweeping Day, which begins today:

Feng Zijian, director of the health emergency center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reminded the public to take precautions against the virus in crowded places and not to contact poultry during the upcoming Tomb-Sweeping holiday on April 4-6.

Feng suggested the public not to contact birds or chickens during worship rituals so as to reduce the risk of contracting the H7N9.

At least they’re erring on the side of caution this time.

It was 10 years ago, after all, that SARS happened — indeed, was allowed to happen to the extent it did because of government cover-ups. Have we learned our lessons? “So far, many netizens seemed to feel that their government has been doing an OK job,” reports Offbeat China.

Keep up the okayness! We’ll continue monitoring.

UPDATE, 4/5, 1;58 am: “Another person died of H7N9 bird flu in east China’s Shanghai on Thursday, bringing the total number of such deaths in the country to four, according to local authorities,” according to Xinhua.

The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said in a notice on its website that three women, aged 45, 48 and 32, and an 83-year-old retired man, from different cities in the province, were all critically ill with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed by the provincial disease prevention centre.

…The level-3 response plan, the second-lowest in a four-stage scale, reflects higher concern after the H7N9 bird flu virus led to the deaths of two men in Shanghai and seriously sickened a woman in the city of Chuzhou 360 kilometres west.

“The health bureau will take effective and powerful measures to prevent and control the disease, to make sure the flu epidemic is effectively guarded against and to safeguard the health of the city’s residents,” said Xu Jianguang, head of the Shanghai Health Bureau.

That brings the total count to seven cases, including two deaths last week in Shanghai. There appears to be a run on flu medication, which bodes well for pharmaceutical companies.

Four new human cases of bird flu in China, new steps taken (AP)

UPDATE, 9:53 am: Many have already speculated and commented on the connection of H7N9 and the disease that killed all those pigs, but if not, here’s Quartz:

Chinese authorities, who have so far been cagey about the mass pig death, should test the pig carcasses for H7N9 and disclose whether they had something to do with the two deaths in Shanghai. Peter Katona, professor of medicine at the division of infectious diseases at UCLA’s medical school, says “All of that is possible, but you really don’t know until you do some tests of the animals.”

Xinhua reports that three humans came down with H7N9 avian influenza recently in Shanghai and Anhui province. The two from Shanghai are dead, while the other, a 35-year-old woman from Chuzhou City, is in critical condition. Worryingly, while one of the victims was 87 years old, the other was only 27, and died less than two weeks after falling ill.

There is some good news though:

So far, the commission said, it is unclear how the three got infected, and no mutual infections were discovered among them. Besides, no abnormalities were detected among 88 of their close contacts.

The subtype of H7N9 bird flu virus has not been contracted to human beings before. The virus shows no signs of being highly contagious among humans, according to the clinical observation on the cases’ close contacts.

The World Health Organization is aware of the situation, according to AP.

Two die from H7N9 bird flu in Shanghai (Xinhua)