Chinese man dies from bird flu; first H5N1 fatality in 18 months

A Chinese bus driver near Hong Kong died of bird flu on Saturday, becoming the first person killed by the virus since 2010.

The 39-year-old man, whose last name was Chen, died of organ failure in Shenzhen, a wealthy city in southern China, after battling the fever for nearly two weeks, The Associated Press reported.

Chen's death comes a week after health workers slaughtered thousands of chickens and other birds at a poultry market after finding the virus -- officially H5N1 -- in two bird carcasses in Hong Kong.

Health officials don't think Chen was in contact with any diseased birds, but may have contracted the virus by coming in contact with bird droppings during jogs through a local park.

"We discovered he had taken five days leave before he fell sick. He went jogging every morning in an area where there are many migratory birds," Chinese Health Ministry official He Jianfeng said, according to London's The Telegraph.

The health department said that 120 people who had come in contact with Chen don't appear to have caught the flu.

H5N1 is transmitted easily from bird to bird but rarely infects humans, who must come in close contact with sick birds or tainted poultry in order to catch it.

The fatality rate for those who catch it is around 60 percent, scientists say.

Globally, bird flu has sickened 573 peole and killed 336 since 2003, including 26 deaths in China, World Health Organization numbers say.

Before Chen's death, a pregnant 22-year-old woman in central Hubei province was the last person to die from bird flu in June 2010.

Over the past three weeks, health workers slaughtered some 20,000 birds at a Hong Kong market after lab tests showed a chicken carcass and another dead bird were infected with H5N1.

The government also called for a three week ban on imports and sale of live poultry.

With News Wire Services

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nydnrss/news/~3/vgf6rezfHEU/story01.htm

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