China Escalates Its Response To Outbreak Of Avian Flu

Andrew Jacobs
New York Times
Chinese officials escalated their response, advising people to avoid live poultry, sending virologists to chicken farms across the country and slaughtering more than 20,000 birds at a wholesale market in Shanghai.  

Novel Bird Flu Kills Two In China

Declan Butler
Nature
Scientists stress that it is much too early to do a full risk assessment of the potential pandemic threat. But the initial analysis of viral sequences is “worrisome” because they show several features that are suggestive of adaptation to humans...

Two Cabinet Agencies Are Cut In Restructuring By China

Edward Wong
New York Times
The Health Ministry will merge with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, while other ministries and agencies, like the Chinese F.D.A., are being restructured or given more power. 

Violence Against Doctors on the Rise

Unattributed
Economist
AFTER a growing number of attacks on medical staff in China, doctors and nurses are finding hospitals increasingly unsafe. According to figures from the Ministry of Health, more than 17,000 “incidents” aimed at hospitals and their staff occurred in...