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A few more details have emerged on the 41-year-old fatality from the Guangxi region of China.
Despite two announced cases this week (one from January), China continues to report extremely low numbers of infections in humans and in birds.
Feb 22, 2008
Man in southwest China dies of bird flu
BEIJING - A 41-YEAR-OLD man has died of bird flu in southwest China, the Health Ministry said, marking the country's 19th fatality from the H5N1 virus and its second this year.
The man, surnamed Liang, died of the H5N1 virus strain on Wednesday in the Guangxi region, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.
The World Health Organization's Beijing office on Friday confirmed the death. The man fell ill on Feb 12 and was admitted to a hospital two days later, the ministry said.
The WHO has now recorded 19 deaths in China from the H5N1 strain since it started ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in late 2003.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday that a 22-year-old man died of bird flu in January in the central Hunan province. The WHO also confirmed that death.
Both cases this year occurred in regions hit by unusually harsh snow storms that wrecked thousands of acres of crops and killed 69 million farm animals.
Hans Troedsson, WHO's representative in China, said on Friday that respiratory diseases are more easily transmitted in colder weather but added that two cases were too few to cause concern.
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