By RIA Novosti
Moscow : China’s southern province of Guangdong has announced the death of a 44-year-old woman from bird flu, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
The woman died on Monday in hospital, the health ministry said. She became China’s third bird flu fatality this month, and its 20th in total.
Local officials carried out emergency vaccination and disinfection on poultry near the victim’s residence.
On February 20, the avian influenza killed a 41-year-old man in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
According to the World Health Organization, avian influenza has so far killed 230 people in 364 confirmed cases worldwide. Although there have been no incidences of human to human infection, experts fear that it may mutate into a form that could easily be transmitted from person to person, causing a global pandemic.