China can control H7N9 bird flu: Health official

China's most senior health official says the country can control the H7N9 bird flu outbreak. Her announcement comes as authorities round up pigeons in parks, and face masks and flu medication sell out in Shanghai.

A dose of reassurance - As fear of the H7N9 bird flu virus grows; China's most senior health official says the country can control the outbreak.

Li Bin, head of Health & Family Planning Commission, said, "We can control it!"

Li Bin's claims were backed by the WHO's representative to China, Dr. Michael O'Leary, who's praised China for getting on top of the crisis.

Dr. Michael O'Leary said, "China is demonstrating their ability to get on top of this problem quickly, to investigate strongly and to, I'm sure, come to conclusions as quickly as possible."

China is mobilising resources nationwide to combat the new bird flu strain.

It's monitoring hundreds of close contacts of confirmed cases and culling tens of thousands of birds where traces of the virus are being found.

Authorities in Shanghai have rounded up pigeons in the city's People's Park after some of the birds in a food market were found to be infected.

Meanwhile, the public is busy buying face masks and traditional medicines believed to prevent flu.

A manager of a pharmacy in Shanghai says they are already out of stock.

Wu Yan, pharmacy manager, said, "Because of reports of bird flu in the last two days, sales of face masks and baphicacanthus roots have gone right up, and supply can barely meet demand. Every day, between ten and twenty boxes of baphicacanthus root medicine and 40 to 50 packs of face masks sell out. So the suppliers are nearly out of stock now, and we have nowhere to get more."

Other strains of bird flu, such as H5N1, have been circulating for many years.

They can be transmitted from bird to bird and bird to human, but not generally from human to human.

There has been global concern that this outbreak could be different. But so far there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission.