Avian flu patient in China released from hospital (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-05-26 17:17
An eight-year-old girl in southwest China's Sichuan Province was discharged
from hospital Friday after being cured of avian flu.
Sun Yue waved goodbye to doctors and nurses as she hopped out of the People's
Hospital in Suining at midday, carrying a bouquet and a doll. She was wearing a
white sleeveless dress and had an elegant chignon knot hairdo.
Her doctors said she has recovered after about five weeks of treatment.
"She's had normal temperature for more than a week and all her symptoms have
gone," said Jiang Yuanming, head of the hospital's anti-infection department.
Jiang and his colleagues have minimized the use of antibiotics during Sun's
treatment out of fear that excessive antibiotics might lead to bacterial
maladjustments or even fungal infection, he said.
Investigators said poultry deaths occurred in the patient's house before she
came down with the disease.
"She fed chickens and ducks every day," said the girl's mother Liao Zhen in
an interview with Xinhua Friday. "We were so sad when we learned Yueyue was
diagnosed of bird flu."
Liao and her husband spend most time of the year doing odd jobs in the city
to support their family. "Yueyue is a good girl. She never minds having to do
household chores when other kids are playing around," said Liao.
Sun, a third grader at a primary school in Tangjia Township in Suining, was
hospitalized on April 23. The national center for disease control and prevention
confirmed she was suffering from the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
She is the sixth human case of avian flu to be cured of the disease on the
Chinese mainland.
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