Bird flu case number seven in China

China has confirmed its seventh human infection and third human death from bird flu which follows two fatalities from the virus in Anhui province in eastern China.

According to Chinese health officials a 41-year old factory worker from Sanming City in the southern Fujian province, died on December 21 from the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus.

Apparently the initial tests for the virus were negative, but later tests carried out by provincial investigators and China's Center of Disease Control showed positive results.

Health officials in Sanming, an inland area about 170 km (105 miles) from the coast, have now taken steps to check the spread of the virus and are monitoring those who had close contact with the woman.

The Chinese health authorities have notified the World Health Organization, Hong Kong and Taiwan which is close to the Fujian province.

To date Fujian has not reported any recent outbreaks among birds, but in 2003 two Hong Kong residents who traveled to Fujian were diagnosed with H5N1 after returning home.

One was a 33 year-old man who died and one of his daughters had earlier died from pneumonia in a Fujian hospital.

Taiwan has reported that bird flu has appeared in exotic birds smuggled to the island by boat from Fujian.

China has to date recorded two non-fatal human infections in Hunan, two in the northeast province Liaoning, one in the southern region of Guangxi, and another, two weeks ago in Jiangxi, a province next to Fujian.

So far the virus has killed more than 70 people throughout Asia since 2003, but China appears to be one of the least affected countries.

Few details surrounding the death are known, but the woman apparently contracted the disease in an area that has not previously officially reported any outbreaks among birds.

Previous infections have all involved people who had been in close contact with poultry.

The woman apparently showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on December 6 and was hospitalized two days later.

The World Health Organisation has said that China needs to change its farming practices in order to stop the spread of the H5N1 virus and suspects that a 12-year old girl who died in November in the southern province of Hunan also probably died from bird flu; she is not included in China fatality figures.

Bird flu is endemic in poultry flocks across parts of the region, and China has experienced numerous outbreaks in poultry since October.

Beijing has launched widespread measures to stop the virus spreading and infecting more people.

The country is currently halfway through a vaccination campaign of its all domestic poultry which involves as many as 14 billion chickens and ducks.

Health experts are concerned that the current strain may mutate from a disease that largely affects birds to one that can transfer easily between people, leading to a worldwide human pandemic.