Two more deaths from bird flu reported
(China Daily/AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-12 06:18

The deaths of two more people on the Chinese mainland, revealed yesterday, raised the toll from bird flu to five.

A vendor weighs chickens for a customer at an outdoor chicken market in Nanjing, in eastern China's Jiangsu province in December 2005. [AFP]

Of the two recent deaths, one was a 10-year-old girl surnamed Tang in Ziyuan County of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the other, a 35-year-old man surnamed Guo in Suichuan County of East China's Jiangxi Province.

They contracted the H5N1 virus and died of complications from the disease on December 16 and 30 despite medical treatment.

Eight confirmed human cases of avian influenza have been reported on the mainland.

Two farmers in East China's Anhui and a worker in East China's Fujian - all women - died of the disease in November and December last year.

The country's eighth human case, a 6-year-old boy in Central China's Hunan Province, is in a critical condition with both his lungs seriously damaged. His case was reported on January 9.

A 9-year-old boy in Xiangtan County of Hunan Province and a woman in Northeast China's Liaoning Province have both recovered from the disease.

Experts blamed the fatalities to delayed reporting, diagnosis and treatment.

Even the best anti-viral drug, such as oseltamivir, will not be as effective if given one or two days after the infection, according to Roy Wadia, spokesman for the Beijing Office of the World Health Organization (WHO).