Special report: Global fight against bird flu

    CHENGDU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- 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. Enditem

    She is the sixth human case of avian flu to be cured of the disease on the Chinese mainland.

    The Ministry of Health said 12 people are known to have died of bird flu in China. Worldwide, 115 people have died in nine countries.

    The virus remains a disease in birds and is hard for humans to catch, but health experts worry that the virus could mutate into a form that easily transmits among humans. Enditem