Reuters: China's official H1N1 death count suspect

China may have had more H1N1 flu deaths than have been reported, with some local governments possibly concealing suspect cases, a prominent Chinese medical expert said in an interview published on Thursday.

Zhong Nanshan, a doctor based in the far southern province of Guangdong, said he doubted the current official death toll from the influenza strain, also called 'swine flu', that has medical experts worldwide worried.

'I just don't believe that nationwide there have been in all 53 H1N1 deaths,' Zhong told the Southern Metropolis Daily, a popular Guangdong newspaper.

Zhong said that 'some areas have not been testing deaths from severe (pneumonia) and treating them as cases of ordinary pneumonia without a question,' the paper reported.

Zhong is respected by many people in China for his candour and work in fighting 'severe acute respiratory syndrome' (SARS) in 2003, when nationwide panic and international alarm erupted after it emerged that officials hid or underplayed the spreading epidemic.

China, the world's most populous country, has reported 28 new H1N1 deaths in the last week during a cold snap across much of the country, the Ministry of Health said on its website (www.moh.gov.cn).

The latest national death tally issued on Monday on the same website showed 53 death cases.

Read the rest of the article here:
Reuters: China's official H1N1 death count suspect