Henan health officials criticized for hiding tick bites from public
- Source: Global Times
- [01:47 September 09 2010]
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By Zhao Ran
After public criticism, health authorities in Central China's Henan Province publicly admitted Wednesday that 18 people died in Henan after being bitten by ticks, the Xinhua News Agency said.
The 18 fatalities were among 557 reported cases of suspected human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) since May 2007.
HGA reduces white blood cells and platelet counts in the blood, leading to organ failure and even death. People in close contact with patients could also be infected if no precautions are taken.
Most of the reported cases were in Xinyang's Shangcheng and Guangshan counties and Shihe and Pingqiao districts, Xu Bianli, deputy head of Henan Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control told Xinhua.
The release of this information came in the wake of a widely circulated report that criticized the local government for not disseminating the information about the cases on a time basis. They said they feared the public would overreact and panic since several people died after tick bites.
However, if treated with medications on a timely basis, bite victims could recover.
According to a report in Beijing News Wednesday, local authorities in Xinyang and Shangchen tried to prevent release of the bites due to "stability concerns".
"As the pathogen and the transmission is not yet known, we cannot release any special information about the disease in order to avoid a commotion among the public," Yu Fang, director of Shangcheng disease prevention and control center, told the paper.
The report said that the poor flow of official information about the disease actually caused more anxiety.
To probe the cause of the disease, the Center for Disease Prevention and Control ordered the Henan center to start monitoring the disease on May 31, Xu said. The local center sent experts to Xinyang between April and June to help local doctors diagnose the disease and contain its spread. Local doctors were not aware of the medical symptoms from tick bites since it only identified in 2007, Xu told Xinhua.
Monitoring of the disease is still underway in Xinyang.
