This week witnessed the Boston Marathon terrorist blasts and a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas in the US, an earthquake in Iran, a sharp decline in the prices of gold and associated products worldwide, and a campus poisoning back here in Shanghai.

Local police have yet to release details about the fatal poisoning case at Fudan University in which a 27-year-old medical student died after drinking contaminated water in his dormitory. Citywide donations has been directed to the parents of the victim who was the only child in his family in Sichuan Province. Staff at the Global Times have also contributed to the fund.

Yesterday I talked with my friend in Hong Kong about the nosedive in gold prices, and asked whether there has been a rumored purchase spree. He hesitated, before saying: "In fact we Hongkongers care more about the H7N9 bird flu virus than we do about gold or house prices."

My foreign colleagues echoed his sentiments by telling me the expat community cares deeply about the bird flu issue because it has already affected their daily lives by not being able to consume poultry products including eggs. I think I may be guilty of overlooking this issue somewhat. But thankfully, the Shanghai and national authorities have been paying close attention to all the ramifications of this ongoing story.

As of Thursday night, there were 83 confirmed H7N9 cases and 17 deaths nationwide. Among them, Shanghai reported 32 cases and 11 deaths.

On Wednesday afternoon Wu Fan, director of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention answered questions about the H7N9 virus via the platform of the municipal government's official Sina Weibo account.

Wu's information included the following highlights.

Wu first explained the term "reviewing diagnosis" as an international practice indicating that five diagnosis results were given after the patients had died.

Wu added that, either because of the improvement in inspection methods, or for further research and diagnosis requirements, some samples will be reviewed or re-tested to determine particular viruses. She explained that of the 11 who have died in Shanghai, five were only diagnosed with the virus after they had already passed away.

The director refuted the claim of interpersonal infection within the Fifth People's Hospital of Shanghai after the public questioned why a total of six confirmed H7N9 bird flu cases had been identified at the hospital. Wu said that these six patients had already shown pneumonia symptoms before being sent to the hospital, which indicated that they had been infected beforehand. Wu said it is groundless to claim the patients became infected in the hospital.

Wu also responded to earlier media reports about pneumonia patients having their requests for H7N9 tests turned down. Some questioned whether the high cost of the test was behind the decision, or whether there was insufficient staff and resources to carry out the test. Wu said that four criteria had to be met before the H7N9 test would be carried out. She added that a high fever alone was not sufficient reason. She reaffirmed that all the related costs of the test would be met by the government and that Shanghai had enough medical equipment and personnel to complete the tests.

However, in the light of three members of the same family testing positive, as well as a separate married couple, the National Health and Family Planning Commission stated that it couldn't completely rule out the possibility of interpersonal infection, according to the Beijing Times.

The good news is that Beijing's first confirmed H7N9 patient left Beijing Ditan Hospital on Wednesday. The 7-year-old girl has recovered well after starting treatment on April 11.

Shanghai also saw another recovery case when a 66-year-old man was discharged from hospital after more than two weeks of treatment.

These cases give hope and confidence to both family members of patients and medical staff. And hopefully the experience gained can play a role in curing other patients.

It has been noted how government departments have improved in terms of releasing information about H7N9, compared to the situation 10 years ago after the outbreak of SARS. This is laudable but the public would dearly like to see the same level of attention and transparency applied to other problem areas in society, among them are worsening environmental pollution, gutter oil, and other food industry scandals.

We have all heard about cancer villagers scattered across heavily polluted areas of East China. Meanwhile, used cooking oil is being recovered from gutters and then recycled and distributed in many areas because of its low cost. Is it too much to ask that these pressing issues are shown the same urgency as the H7N9 bird flu virus?

I may be criticized for being too demanding. But isn't it every citizen's right to expect their government to solve problems that threaten the very health and lives of that country's population?

The author is the managing editor of Global Times Metro Shanghai. fengyu@globaltimes.com.cn