22 January 2014 (17:32 UTC-07 Tango 21 January)/20 Rabi ‘al-Awwal 1435/02 Bahman 1392/22 Gui-Chou (12th month) 4711

China: National Health and Family Planning Commission now coordinating closely with other national and local government departments to stop the spread of deadly H7N9.   The UN World health Organization reports at least 47 confirmed H7N9 cases in China since the beginning of January.  Most are hospitalized in critical condition. 

Since March 2013, there’ve been at least 200 human cases in China, with at least 55 deaths.

Health officials continue to claim H7N9 is not a human to human virus, despite that fact that more and more cases involve people who’s only contact with H7N9 is with infected humans.

Also, The South China Morning Post says an unnamed hospital official confirmed that a 31 years old surgeon who recently died from H7N9 had no contact with birds.  The unnamed hospital official thinks the doctor got sick from hospital patients infected with H7N9.

Back in August 2013, it was confirmed that a woman caring for her sick father caught H7N9 from him.

Japan:  Japanese health officials have been warning for a long time that H7N9 has become a human influenza.  Now the Japanese government is preparing for medical martial law.

The Tokyo Quarantine Station and Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department held a drill in which 35 people were locked down at the Haneda Airport, for being infected with H7N9.  Japanese health officials say the only way H7N9 is going to get into their country is from sick travelers.

Taiwan: Health officials know what Japan is fearing, as two people who traveled to Taiwan, from mainland China, brought H7N9 with them.  One of those has just died.

An 86 years old man who arrived in Taiwan, in December, sick with H7N9 has just died.  Interestingly he died six days after being released from medical quarantine.  The official cause of death is septic shock.

The first person to bring H7N9 to Taiwan was a man returning from a business trip to China, in April 2013.  It took one month of intensive care before he recovered.

United States: “Potential cases of human infection with influenza A (H7N9) virus should also be investigated, using current case definitions and testing recommendations for avian influenza A (H7N9) virus.”-U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)