China has another death from bird flu

Nov 24 2005

China has confirmed a third human case of bird flu.

According to local media the Health Ministry has said that a 35-year-old woman farmer in Anhui province developed fever and pneumonia-like symptoms on Nov. 11 after contact with sick and dead poultry, and she died on Nov. 22.

Tests by China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have proven positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

To date H5N1 has killed 67 people in Asia since 2003, and both the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have warned of the huge economic costs of a human pandemic should the virus mutate into a form that can spread easily among people.

At present the virus is hard for humans to catch.

The case confirmed on Wednesday is China's second known fatality.

A poultry worker from Anhui died of bird flu on Nov. 10.

Another confirmed case, a nine-year-old boy, survived infection while his dead sister is a suspected case.

Officials figures estimate that as many as 50 million Chinese households raise poultry, mainly in backyards, yet the average number of birds raised is just 19, according to a Chinese government survey.