BEIJING – China has recorded world’s first human death due to a type of bird flu in a rare incident, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed.
The victim has been identified as a 56-year-old woman, resident of the southern province of Guangdong. She was the third person known to have been infected with the H3N8 subtype the bird flu. All of the cases were reported in China.
The Guangdong Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the third bird flu case in humans last month but it did not shared details of the woman’s death.
The WHO said the deceased woman had also a history of exposure to live poultry.
“Based on available information, it appears that this virus does not have the ability to spread easily from person to person, and therefore the risk of it spreading among humans at the national, regional, and international levels is considered to be low,” the WHO said in the statement.
