Chinese woman dies of H5N6 avian flu

Beijing, July 12: A Chinese woman in Yunnan province has died after contracting H5N6 avian flu, health officials have said.

The 37-year-old woman from Shangri-La City in Deqen prefecture developed symptoms on Monday and died on Friday.

She was later confirmed as having been infected with the bird flu, the Yunnan Health and Family Planning Commission has said.

Experts believe this was an isolated case, and that nobody in close contact with the patient had reported symptoms, indicating no human-to-human transmission in this case, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

In May last year, a man from southwest China's Sichuan Province died after contracting H5N6 in the world's first known human infection with the strain.

The virus had previously been isolated to waterfowls and wild ducks, experts said.

PTI