China announces four more bird flu infections
Iran Press TV
Tue Apr 2, 2013 2:8PM GMT
Chinese authorities say four more people have been infected with a new strain of bird flu after two Shanghai male citizens died on Sunday from a bird flu strain not seen before in humans.
On Tuesday, the health bureau in the eastern province of Jiangsu issued a statement saying that a man and three women were sickened by the bird flu virus.
On Sunday, officials said two Shanghai male citizens, aged 27 and 87, died after they were infected by the H7N9 virus in February.
The World Health Organization regional spokesman Timothy O’Leary has said they are “closely monitoring the situation” in China.
"There is apparently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and transmission of the virus appears to be inefficient, therefore the risk to public health would appear to be low," said O'Leary.
Given that the H7N9 strain is considered not easily contracted by humans, there is no vaccine against the virus. The majority of humans, who have died from the bird flu, were infected by another type of the disease, namely the H5N1 strain.
Since 2003, the H5N1 strain has caused more than 360 confirmed human deaths and tens of millions of birds have died from the virus.
MAM/JR/SL
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