HONG KONG (Reuters):
A MAN has died from bird flu in southern China, the ninth death from the H5N1 virus in the country, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
The man, identified as a 32-year-old with the surname Lao, was the 15th human bird flu case in China. He died in Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong. In Europe, Poland detected its first case of H5 bird flu in two swans found dead, the government said yesterday. Further tests would be needed to determine if it was the H5N1 strain.
Bird flu has killed at least 94 people in East Asia and the Middle East since late 2003. Victims contract the virus through close contact with sick poultry.
However, scientists fear the virus could mutate to spread from person to person, triggering a global pandemic.
Lao had symptoms of fever and pneumonia on February 22 and died on March 2, Xinhua said. The symptoms appeared after Lao made several visits to an agricultural market where he spent a long time near "a live poultry slaughtering site," Xinhua said.
Hong Kong will suspend imports of all live poultry from Guangdong for three weeks starting today, a Hong Kong government spokesman said. Day-old chicks and pet birds would also be barred from import, he said.
Meanwhile, France announced yesterday a new case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in a wild duck in the east of the country, while another test on a wild swan showed the virus had spread several hundred kilometres to the south.
The Agriculture Ministry said tests for H5N1 had proved positive on the wild duck found on February 28 in the Ain region, where the first case of the deadly strain in domestic farm birds in the European Union was found last month at a turkey farm.
