China free of bird flu cases

HEALTH authorities in eastern China said they have so far detected no human cases of bird flu after a woman in Hong Kong who had visited the region contracted the potentially fatal disease.

The Shanghai Health Bureau said experts had been dispatched to find people who came into close contact with the 59-year-old woman, who is in a serious condition in a Hong Kong hospital.

She had recently visited Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, but officials in Hong Kong said it was too early to say where or how she contracted the disease.