Beijing authorities have banned all live poultry from other parts of the country from entering the capital, after a woman died from the H5N1 bird flu virus on Monday morning.

"Only poultry certified safe by the city's animal disease control authorities will be allowed into the city," the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Beijing municipal bureau of agriculture also issued an alert yesterday to intensify the monitoring of trade in live poultry, while animal disease control personnel have launched inspections of the city's slaughterhouses and poultry farms.

The authorities have not received any reports of adverse conditions regarding poultry in the city, the Beijing agriculture bureau said.

Huang Yanqing, 19, a native of Fujian province, bought nine ducks from a market in Hebei on December 19. She fell ill on December 24 and was hospitalized before dying in Beijing.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Ministry of Health, confirmed Huang had been infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The authorities yesterday disinfected Hebei's Yanjiaoxinggong market in Sanhe city, where Huang had bought the ducks with two other people from Fujian. The market's five shops selling live poultry have also been closed.

The Sanhe city government has reportedly set up a task force to deal with bird flu prevention, quarantine and the market's management.

Similarly, health authorities have examined 15 people handling live poultry trade in the market and all were confirmed to be free of the disease, while residents who had been diagnosed with fever have been inspected.

Medical professionals have also started visiting families in Beijing in all its districts and counties to look out for bird flu symptoms.

"Medical institutes of all levels must carry out individual registrations and report all flu-like cases," Deng Xiaohong, deputy chief of the Beijing municipal health bureau, said in a press release.

Flu-like cases include symptoms like fevers above 38 C, along with coughs and sore throats.

Fever and pneumonia cases of unknown origin will be covered under specialist consultations at the municipal level, Deng said.

"If bird flu cannot be ruled out after such consultations, the Beijing Emergency Medical Center will dispatch special ambulances to transfer the patient to the Beijing Ditan Hospital or Beijing YouAn Hospital for further treatment," Deng said.

(China Daily January 8, 2009)