Man dies of bird flu in China

A 36-year-old man working as roast-duck vendor died after contracting H7N9 bird flu in China's central Henan province, authorities said today.
The man, identified as Zhang, died on January 11, the Henan provincial health and family planning commission said in a statement.
He is from Yongcheng city, but had worked in Zhejiang province as a roast-duck vendor.
On Decembber 25, he had fever and coughing.
He returned to Yongcheng on January 2 and went to see a doctor in Xuzhou City on January 4.
Yongcheng city is closely monitoring the health conditions of 16 people who had close contact with the patient.

None of them has shown symptoms of fever yet.

H7N9, a bird flu strain, strikes in winter and spring. It was first reported in humans in China in March, 2013. New infections of the bird flu kept popping up in separate provinces.
More than 10 cases have been reported since January 1, in Jiangxi, Shandong, Hunan, Guangdong, Guizhou, Shanghai and Macao.
Experts with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that China had entered high season for infection of the H7N9 virus, and the possibility of more reported cases in southern China was not being ruled out, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The public should avoid contact with dead poultry, live poultry, birds and their waste, and purchase only certified poultry products, they advised.