Woman dies of suspected bird flu in Beijing

BEIJING, Jan. 6 Kyodo -
A woman has died from suspected bird flu in Beijing, the city's health
authorities reported Tuesday.
And in Hong Kong, the Centre for Health Protection said it had received
notification from China's Health Ministry that the woman had a ''confirmed
human case of avian influenza H5N1,'' the often deadly strain of bird flu
virus.
The woman, Huang Yanqing, died in hospital on Monday morning, according to a
statement released by the Beijing Health Bureau.
Huang, 19, had reportedly cleaned nine ducks she had bought at a market in
neighboring Hebei Province last month before falling ill, the official Xinhua
News Agency reported earlier.
A nurse who treated the woman fell ill with a fever but has now recovered, the
report added.
Officials quoted by Xinhua said the patient had come into close contact with
116 people after she fell ill -- 14 family members and neighbors and 102
medical staff.
Xinhua added an emergency meeting was held in Beijing on Monday evening to
discuss how to handle the case.
The former patient's home and the wards she was treated in have been
disinfected and the medical authorities are on alert in case of further
infections, the report added.
The World Health Organization and the health authorities in Hong Kong and Macao
have also been given details on the case.
The Beijing Health Bureau statement also said tests indicated the woman was
killed by the H5N1 bird flu virus.
The WHO says 247 people have died from bird flu since 2003, the vast majority
through contact with infected poultry.
Twenty of the deaths were in China, according to U.N. figures released last month.
A baby girl from the southern province Guangdong was diagnosed as having bird
flu last month and has received hospital treatment in Hong Kong.
The United Nations says human-to-human transmission of the virus is rare, but
if similar cases do arise it could massively increase the risk of the infection
spreading.
==Kyodo
2009-01-06 22:10:31