Confirmed human bird flu death in China
A man in China’s southern Guangdong province died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, an expert confirmed today.
The 32-year-old man, who lived in Guangzhou city – less than a two-hour train ride from Hong Kong – developed fever and pneumonia on February 22 and died on March 2.
“The patient is confirmed to have bird flu. It’s not a suspected, but a confirmed case and he is dead,” Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, said in comments broadcast by Hong Kong’s Cable TV.
The man’s girlfriend is sick but shows no bird flu symptoms, while a dozen other people who had come into close contact with the man have also shown no symptoms, Zhong said.
The World Health Organisation is warning of the possibility of more human cases.
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, WHO spokeswoman, said she has not received confirmation of the case from China’s Health Ministry but warned that there could be more human cases in China.
“It could be anywhere in the country,” she said. “The virus is circulating in the poultry population ... there is a possibility that humans could be infected if humans come into contact with the infected poultry.”
Bhativasevi said the ministry last notified the WHO on Friday that the man was a suspected case.
China’s Health Minister Gao Qiang said: “Our experts have arrived in Guangzhou and are investigating with our colleagues there the source of the disease and implement effective control measures.”
The man had repeatedly visited a local market to carry out a survey and spent a long time near where chickens were slaughtered, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.
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