Officials warned about H1N1 flu reports

BEIJING, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The Chinese Ministry of Health says officials who underreport the H1N1 flu pandemic will be punished.

The warning followed criticism from a prominent medical expert who cast doubt on China's official death toll from the disease formerly called swine flu, the China Daily reported Friday.

Some medical experts pointed to limitations in medical capacity and the fact that hospitals are not testing everyone with flu symptoms.

Dr. Zhong Nanshan, famous for his candor in exposing a cover-up of the SARS epidemic in 2003, suggested some local governments had deliberately concealed suspected H1N1 virus cases.

"I just don't believe that there have been 53 H1N1 deaths nationwide," Zhong said, adding that the number could be much higher.

The ministry reported that there had been 69,160 H1N1 cases on the mainland as of Monday.

Zhong said some parts of the country, which he did not identify, were not testing severe pneumonia deaths to see if they were, in fact, H1N1 deaths.

Ministry of Health spokesman Deng Haihua responded by saying that anyone found concealing, underreporting or delaying the reporting of details about the pandemic would be punished.