Russia is ready to introduce special sanitary control measures regarding the declining bird flu situation in China, Russia's chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko said on Sunday.
China reported 11 fresh cases of infections of H7N9 avian flu on Sunday, bringing the total number of reported cases to 60. 13 people have died from the disease since last month, most of them are from Shanghai.
The mechanism of the disease is still unknown, as it is not obvious if H7N9 now transmits to humans through birds only, or there is a possibility of human-to-human transmission. Experts also believe that the new virus has a high potential to cause a pandemic.
Gennady Onishchenko has promised not to introduce prohibitive measures at the moment, such as quarantine and others. But special sanitary services in Russian airports and railway stations have already begun checking all passengers coming from China with special thermometry devices, so-called "remote thermometers". The whole procedure takes only few minutes and doesn't cause discomfort. It allows to reveal a very high temperature, which is one of the first bird flu's symptoms.
Author: Julia Alieva