4th avian flu death suspected in guangdong province

Wellness authorities tightened surveillance measurement against avian flu here mon following the fourthly death in mainland China suspected to have been caused by the virus since late last year.

Hospitals will be required to step up monitoring and coverage of patients with symptoms of pneumonia over a four-week period from Tues amid concerns of a renewed outbreak of the lifelessly H5N1 virus.

A 44-year-old woman died mon in the southern Chinese state of Kwangtung from an infection suspected to have been bird flu, Chinese and Hong Kong wellness officials said. A test by the centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Kwangtung found the woman to have been infected with the virus, but the consequence had yet to be confirmed by the wellness Ministry in Peking.

Her death follows several confirmed cases of bird flu infection since Dec. A 24-year-old man from the eastern province of Jiangsu died on Dec. 2. He passed the virus to his 52-year-old father, who later recovered. In the latest cases, a 22-year-old man from telephone exchange Hunan state died on Jan. 24, and a 41-year-old man from the southern region of Guangxi died on Feb. 20.

Hans Troedsson, the World wellness Organization representative in China, said there was only a "prelim" report on the Kwangtung case.

But since mid-December, health and agribusiness authorities in Hong Kong have been on heightened alert for cases of bird flu in person and domestic fowl. They have advised airlines and the traveling industry to distribute information to travelers going to and from Jiangsu.

In a statement announcing additional measures mon, the wellness authorities said they had alerted "frontline staff of hospitals and clinics to step up all infection control measures and maintain vigilance."

Evidence of a resurgence of the bird flu virus causes jitters in Hong Kong, where the economy was battered several years ago by an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

Since late 2003, the H5N1 virus strain has been widespread in poultry populations in Asia and parts of Europe and has led to the culling of tens of millions of birds. China has the biggest domestic poultry population in the world, with many of the birds kept by households.

The World Health Organization has reported 232 deaths worldwide in the past four years, 29 of them in China.

Almost all the reported cases have been as a result of close contact between humans and infected birds. But there are fears that as the number of cases in people increases, so will the risk of the virus mutating into a form that is easily transmissible.

Health officials in Hong Kong said the Guangdong woman who died Monday appeared to have contracted the illness from poultry she kept near her home.

"This lady kept some chickens in her backyard, and they became sick and died during the incubation period of her illness. She also ate some of the chickens herself," Thomas Tsang, the controller of Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection, told Reuters.

Tsang said anyone in Hong Kong who has "signs of pneumonia and has visited Guangdong in the past six months" will be tested for the virus.