Testing and certification of chicken broods will reduce the possibility that the H5N1 will return. If markets were shut down, it is likely underground markets would spring up, because of the cultural preference to purchase live birds. Monitoring markets periodically for viruses is necessary. The public must therefore accept some responsibility. If you want live bird markets, bird flu viruses will be around.
Influenza is a non-eradicable disease as the wild birds of the world harbor all varieties.
Hong Kong Medical Association council member Dr. Wing-lok Lo called on people to stop buying poultry in the markets, saying the facilities were unhygienic and hazardous. He predicts Hong Kong has not seen the end of the H5N1 virus. Most poultry sellers continue to kill the birds at their stalls and do not wash the stalls afterward, according to the results of a hygiene survey. Very few hawkers kill the birds at the markets' centralized scalding rooms as required. All seven victims over the age of 13 years appeared to have a severe attack of influenza, and four died.