China reports confirmed human bird flu with two fatalities

China reported its first three confirmed human cases of bird flu today – two of them fatalities.

This came as the government raced to vaccinate billions of chickens, ducks and other poultry in a massive effort to stop the spread of the virus.

The Health Ministry confirmed two human cases in Hunan province in central China and Anhui province in the east, both of which had outbreaks in poultry in the past month, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The fatalities were a 12-year-old girl in Hunan and a 24-year-old female poultry worker in Anhui, said Roy Wadia, a World Health Organisation spokesman in Beijing.

He said the third case was the girl’s nine-year-old brother, who fell ill but recovered.

China had initially said the girl, her brother and a schoolteacher who fell ill at the same time were negative for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. But the government later reopened the investigation and asked the WHO for help.

China has reported 11 outbreaks in chickens and ducks over the past month throughout the country.