China Sees 10th Human
Death From Bird Flu
China on Wednesday reported its 10th human death from
bird flu, a 9-year-old girl in the country's southeast.
The girl died Monday in the southeastern coastal
province of Zhejiang, the Ministry of Health said in a
statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency. It
did not immediately say whether she was confirmed to
have the virulent H5N1 flu strain.
The cause of the girl's infection was under
investigation, but she visited the home of relatives
whose chickens died while she was there, the ministry
said earlier.
The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed
at least 95 people since 2003, mostly in Asia. Fresh
outbreaks have been reported in more than a dozen
countries since early February.
Most human infections have been linked to direct contact
with sick poultry, but experts have warned that the
virus could mutate into a form that could be easily
transmitted between people, possibly sparking a global
flu pandemic that could kill millions.
