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China Reports New Human Bird-Flu Cases

25 February 2006 -- The Chinese government today reported two new human cases of the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of the bird-flu virus.

The Health Ministry said the cases involve a 9-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman. The girl lives in the southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang and the woman is a farmer from Anhui province in the east.

The report didn't say whether the woman worked with poultry or how the girl might have become infected.

The announcement raised the number of human cases of bird flu reported on China's mainland to 14 since October, with eight deaths.

Also today, the European Union urged its trading partners not to overreact to an outbreak of bird flu in France after Japan suspended all French poultry imports and threatened a similar ban on the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the Georgian government ordered the slaughter of all domestic poultry within a 5-kilometer radius of the village of Aldia in the province of Adjara following discovery of the disease.

(compiled from agency reports)

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org