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BEIJING - A man in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu has died of the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the official Xinhua news agency said, in the first case in the country since June.
China has now recorded 26 human cases of bird flu and 17 deaths.
The man, surnamed Lu, was hospitalised on November 27 with a fever and died on Sunday, Xinhua added.
The man had had no contact with dead poultry and there had been no reported poultry outbreak in the province, it said.
"The local government has adopted relative prevention and control measures. All of the 69 people who had close contact with Lu have been put under strict medical observation. So far, they have shown no signs of symptoms," the report added.
With the world's biggest poultry population and millions of backyard birds roaming free, China is at the centre of the fight against bird flu.
Scientists fear the bird flu virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily from person to person, sparking a global pandemic.
- REUTERS
