Originally published August 20 2005
Chinese authorities ban media from covering deadly pig-borne disease
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Chinese authorities have banned local media from an area in the Sichuan province where a pig-borne virus has infected an estimated 174 people and killed 34 farmers, and they are demanding local newspapers only run stories on the virus that come from a state news agency.
Chinese authorities have banned local reporters from visiting areas where an outbreak of a pig-borne disease has killed 34 farmers, ordering newspapers to use dispatches from the state news agency, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday.
A total of 174 confirmed or suspected cases have been linked to the bacteria streptococcus suis in China's southwestern Sichuan province, where farmers who handled or butchered infected pigs have been sickened in dozens of villages and towns.
Symptoms include nausea, fever, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin.
Sichuan authorities have ordered local journalists to stay away from locations where the disease surfaced, and told newspapers to instead carry stories as issued by the official Xinhua News Agency, including the headline, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News reported.
Calls to Sichuan's provincial government headquarters in Chengdu seeking confirmation of the media ban went unanswered.
Beijing was heavily criticized during its SARS outbreak for its reluctance to release information.
A Sichuan journalist, quoted by the Ming Pao newspaper, said Hong Kong reporters were better informed than they were about the pig disease.
Former British colony Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, isn't subject to China's media controls under a special autonomy arrangement.
Much of the information about the disease has been filtering out through Hong Kong, which is briefed by China about health threats.
The first case outside the province was reported Saturday in Guangdong, a southern Chinese province neighboring Hong Kong.
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