A woman of 31 years is the fourth fatality from the bird flu virus in humans since the beginning of the year, confirmed by the Department of Health of the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
The deceased, a resident of the regional capital, Urumqi, died at dawn on Friday. According to the department’s regional deputy director, Wang Xiaoyan, the victim was at a live poultry market before falling ill on January 10.
Analysis of the Center for Disease Control today confirmed the presence of the lethal H5N1 virus of avian influenza in samples taken from the victim.
Since January 5 Three other people died in China on avian flu: a rural immigrant 19 years in Beijing the same day, last Saturday of another woman 27 years in Shandong (east) and 20 a couple days of 16 years in the central province of Hunan.
A baby of two years who was admitted to the province of Shanxi on avian flu was discharged from hospital yesterday after he threatened to leave and remained stable for six days straight.
The short space of time that these deaths have been recorded in China, where since 2003 there were 34 cases of which 22 died, has triggered alarms to a possible mutation of the H5N1 strain that allows the transmission between humans and not only from infected birds to people.
This theory took power after it was known that the mother of the baby Shanxi died two weeks ago of ‘pneumonia’, a symptom of bird flu, whose presence could not be confirmed because the body was cremated.
According warned the World Health Organization (WHO) on several occasions, infections occur among people with the disease could become a pandemic for which there is no vaccine.
Data updated on Thursday, the WHO since 2003 indicate there have been 399 cases of bird flu in people in 15 countries, most of Southeast Asia, of whom 251 died.