# 1710
For the third time in less than a month, China is reporting an H5N1 related death, this time from Guangdong province.
Woman dies in southern China, tested positive for bird flu
02.25.08, 4:08 AM ET
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - A 44-year-old woman in southern China who tested positive for bird flu died today, health officials said, in what is likely the country's third confirmed death from the virus this year.
The migrant worker, surnamed Zhang, died after developing a fever and a cough following contact with dead poultry in Guangdong, the province's health department said, although authorities in Beijing did not immediately comment.
In the financial hub of Hong Kong, which borders Guangdong, officials reacted by increasing tests of poultry coming over the border, although there was no ban on imports as occurred in similar cases previously.
The Guangdong health department said Zhang died in hospital after developing a fever, cough and inflammation of the lungs on Feb 16.
'We undertook tests on the patient and found that ... a test for the bird flu virus (H5N1) was positive,' the department said in a statement.
'It was determined that before her illness she had had contact with dead poultry,' the statement added, without saying specifically that the suspect fowl had H5N1.
The department said that no-one else who had come into close contact with the victim has shown any symptoms of the virus.
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