China reports second H7N9 bird flu death in a week

[January 13, 2014]  BEIJING (Reuters) — China reported one more death from the H7N9 strain of bird flu in southwestern Guizhou province, state news agency Xinhua said on Monday, in the second death from the virus in the past week.

A 38-year-old man from Zunyi city died last Thursday, Xinhua said, citing health authorities in Guizhou.

Xinhua said it was the first human case of H7N9 in Guizhou this year.

Last Friday, China said a 38-year-old man in eastern Fujian province died from H7N9.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said last week that seven more people in China had been found to be infected with the H7N9 strain of bird flu in the previous week, taking to around 150 the total number of cases so far.

The H7N9 bird flu emerged last year in China and has infected around 150 people there and in Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing at least 45 of them.

Experts say there is no evidence as yet of any easy or sustained person-to person transmission of the strain. But an early scientific analysis of probable transmission of the new flu from person to person, published last August, gave the strongest proof yet that it can at times jump between people and so could cause a human pandemic.

The WHO said the source of the human infections was still being investigated. It stressed that it does not advise any special screening for people going in and out of China, nor does it recommend any travel or trade curbs.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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