Flu puts scar on region

It’s been six days since the quarantine order was lifted from Dingdang, a small town about 70 kilometres from Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which recorded the first case of bird flu on the mainland on January 27.

It’s been six days since the quarantine order was lifted from Dingdang, a small town about 70 kilometres from Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which recorded the first case of bird flu on the mainland on January 27.The deadly strain of bird flu, H5N1, has been rampaging through much of Asia since late last year, devastating a poultry industry worth billions of dollars.Millions of chickens have been culled as government officials hold contingency meetings to discuss how best to contain what the World Health Organisation has described as the “fastest spreading disease ever”.“Everything has happened too fast so I have not really had time to think about it,” said 17-year-old college student Wei Xiaohua, who was waiting in line for a seat in a packed American chicken fast-food restaurant on bustling Xingning Road in central Nanning.The bird flu epidemic has sparked extra concern because of China’s vast population and its history as the breeding ground for new diseases such as the Sars outbreak that shook the world last year. However, many Nanning locals like Wei do not think bird flu is a particular threat or, at worst, less so than Sars. Some locals say bird flu is not scary as it is happening far from them, despite reports of suspected cases inside the city. Some others say they have gotten used to diseases in poultry.“In the 1960s, when we were not as affluent, we would eat sick chickens. It was okay to eat as long as the chickens were cooked thoroughly,” Lu Jiabin, 43, a Nanning-born taxi-driver, said. “The thing is that when people get richer, they think their lives are worth more and they become more scared.” No one can play a better role in diluting the fear of bird flu than chicken retailers.In Dan Cun market, one of the biggest wet markets in the city, 30-year-old chicken stall keeper Chen Hong brushed aside feathers as she showed a customer the bird’s posterior, a normal procedure when checking the health of chickens.“Our chickens have passed government tests and have been vaccinated,” she said. Surrounded by dozens of live chickens for sale, Chen, who is seven months’ pregnant, said bird flu is nothing to be scared of, and that her shop was scrubbed and cleaned thoroughly every night.In fact, during the peak of the outbreak, not all poultry markets in the city were banned from selling live chickens. Xie Xinlian, the 38-year-old proprietor of another chicken store at Dan Cun, also said there is little to fear. “The quarantine order has been lifted,” she said as she opened a cage with her hands. “People are not afraid any more.”She said vigilant hygiene measures had been put in place but that the government had never insisted that she wear gloves when handling chickens. Besides, the wearing of gloves only made her work harder.“It is hard to clean out a chicken’s entrails while wearing gloves,” she said.It’s people like Xie, and the way the poultry business operates on the mainland, that worries international health experts. Raising poultry close to homes is normal for mainland farmers. In fact, in Dan Cun market, retailers often take their meals next to cages or concrete slabs where chickens are slaughtered.Oddly enough, these practices have hardly been noticed by the local media, which has been covering the crisis.Local newspapers ran pictures of government officials eating chickens. Other reports highlighted government’s efforts to contain the disease.On February 13, Nanning’s leading newspaper Nan Guo Zao Bao ran a picture story on a visit to duck farms in Dingdang by foreign reporters. The picture showed a man sporting full protective gear and surrounded by microphones.He was identified as Huang Shengde, whose farm in Dingdang made headlines after 200 ducks were found dead in late January – the start of the mainland outbreak.He told the media that he called the area’s veterinarian once he discovered the illness, after which he and his farm were quarantined.Since then, his temperature had been taken daily and all his meals delivered by health officials as part of the quarantine measures.“My health is very good,” he said. “I’ve had no problems whatsoever.”Separately Huang expressed gratitude to those who took care of him and his family, and said he will raise ducks again once it is safe to do so.Local officials have also said life in the town has returned to normal and that farmers have already started their spring ploughing. But is this the whole story? Have the scars really faded in this rural town?Two weeks after the government-monitored trip, MetroNews privately visited Huang’s farm. Located deep in the rural part of the town, scraps of solid disinfectant were seen scattered around the site near an empty pond. Nobody was working at the shed where Huang’s 1,000 ducks were normally kept. In fact, it looked like an abandoned area.An elderly woman carrying a baby emerged from a house near the shed and stopped in her tracks when she noticed the reporter.“I don’t know,” she said when asked if bird flu had affected her or her family. “I don’t know,” she repeated as tears welled in her eyes.Neighbours said she was Huang’s mother. She had arrived a few days earlier from her hometown to look after his children as he was out of town. “We don’t want to think about it,” said a neighbour whose chickens were confiscated.An official in Dingdang town said Huang’s family had been given cash compensation for the ducks that were culled as well as for some duck feed that had been confiscated.The government has also decided to reduce tax and other fees imposed on poultry producers for six months.The measures did not seem to comfort Huang’s mother.“You cannot help me. How can you help me?” she said. “I’m old. I don’t know these things. Only my sons know,” she said as she walked past four pigs in a sty.Residents have been told not to raise poultry within six months of the lifting of the isolation order.