Fifth bird flu death in China in less than a month

Reports from China's Ministry of Health of a fifth death from bird flu in less than a month shows just how the deadly H5N1 virus remains such a threat.

This latest fatality concerned a young 18 year old male, Mr Liang, who was admitted to hospital on January 24th in Yulin, in the southwestern Guangxi, bordering Vietnam.

The man died on the 26th after becoming sick - he had been treated at a local clinic in the town of Beiliu three days earlier and was in contact with dead poultry before becoming ill.

Ministry officials say as yet none of those who were in contact with him have shown any signs of the illness.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention say Mr Liang tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza and the case has been reported to the World Health Organization.

It has been months since the last outbreak among poultry was discovered - in December the Ministry of Agriculture reported positive results during routine tests for bird flu among poultry in Jiangsu province.

These latest bird flu deaths in China have been spread across the country in areas where there has been no known previous outbreaks of bird flu among poultry, raising suspicions among scientists that the virus may be present but masked by widespread vaccination.

The Health Ministry says there is no evidence of a large-scale outbreak of bird flu and the illnesses were isolated, unrelated and did not show significant mutations of the H5N1 virus; they are also cropping up during the cold months, which experts say is the high season for infections and can be expected.

To date a woman in China's far west died from bird flu last week, a woman in eastern China, a teenage boy in southwest China and a woman in Beijing also have died from the disease this month - a 29-year old man in Guizhou province, remains in a stable condition and a two-year old girl in a Shanxi hospital is now reported to be making a recovery.

China has acted quickly by launching a bird flu reporting system for poultry and human cases where provincial health and agriculture departments are required to report on a daily basis to the Health Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on whether there have been infections in their areas.

The Agriculture Ministry has also increased the monitoring and management of live poultry markets, especially for this week's Lunar New Year holiday, when increased demand for chickens and ducks for celebratory meals will mean more people will be in contact with poultry.

While the H5N1 flu remains mainly a virus among birds, which is hard for humans to catch, experts continue to fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted by humans and trigger a pandemic that could kill millions worldwide.

Since the H5N1 virus reappeared in Asia in 2003 the WHO says it has infected 399 people worldwide and killed 252 of them and at least 22 of them have been in China.