A life of combating bird flu

Hard-won success

The fifth H7N9 bird flu outbreak lasted from October 2016 to September 2017, infecting 766 people.

Chen's biggest worry finally arrived when they found that a mutation in H7N9 virus made the virus pathogenic and lethal to chickens. "It posed an increased threat to humans, bringing the fatality rate to over 50 percent."

From January to September 2017, Chen's race with the virus came into the home stretch.

Her team intensified sample collection and monitoring and accelerated virus analysis and vaccine development.

Their efforts paid off. A new bivalent H5+H7 vaccine was developed, and the application was initiated in September 2017.

Data showed that the vaccine effectively prevented the spread of H7N9 bird flu viruses in poultry and successfully eliminated the H7N9 virus infection in humans.

Bird flu has seldom been heard of in 2018, but Chen remained busy as usual. "We will not relax until bird flu viruses are completely rooted out."

Thanks to Chinese researchers like Chen, China has made huge progress in the bird flu field over the past four decades of reform and opening-up.

For Chen, she felt it worth to let her work occupy a large part of her life.

"Is there anything funnier and more deserving for me than to nip a bird flu pandemic in the bud?" She said.