UPDATED ON:
Monday, December 03, 2007
12:36 Mecca time, 09:36 GMT
 
News Asia-Pacific
China reports new bird flu death
Scientists fear a global pandemic if the H5N1 virus mutates and passes between humans [EPA]
A 24-year-old man from eastern in China has died of bird flu, becoming the country's 17th officially reported fatality from the disease.
 
Tests have confirmed that the man from Jiangsu province suffered from the H5N1 virus, state media reported on Monday

He reportedly had no contact with dead poultry and is the first death in China from the disease since June.

 

Scientists fear the bird flu virus could mutate into

The latest victim surnamed Lu was taken to a hospital in Jiangsu with a fever, news reports said, but he died five days later.

 

Xinhua news agency said the local government has taken "relative prevention and control measures" since Lu's case was reported.

 

"All of the 69 people who had close contact with Lu have been put under strict medical observation," the agency said. "So far, they have shown no signs of symptoms."

 
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was in touch with Chinese health officials who were monitoring Lu's close contacts.
 
Joanna Brent, a WHO spokeswoman, told Reuters: "At this stage we don't have any more information about how he [Lu] would have contracted it."

 

China has had 26 human cases of H5N1, and with the world's biggest poultry population and millions of backyard birds roaming free, is at the centre of the fight against the disease.

 Source: Agencies
 
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