14th bird flu death in China
August 15th, 2006
A 62 year old man from the Xinjiang region in Western China has died following an infection with the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. The farmer was the 21st recorded case of human bird flu infection in the country and its 14th fatality. This includes the case that the government only confirmed last week to have occurred in late 2003, two years before the first publicly announced case. It is believed the farmer contracted the virus after coming into close contact with disease birds. The highly pathogenic virus has killed at least 138 people world wide since 2003.