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An elderly woman from Jiangxi province has become the first fatality from H10N8, a rare strain of avian flu that had no previous history of affecting humans.
The woman was described as 73 years old, had underlying conditions such as high-blood pressure, heart disease and neuro-muscular disorder, and had visited a live-poultry market a few days before she fell ill. She was hospitalized for pneumonia on November 30 and died of respiratory failure on December 6.
According to Jiangxi Health Administration officials, the H10N8 bird flu strain was first detected in the patient's blood sample in Nanchang where she was hospitalized. The findings were later confirmed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
A statement from China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said "initial assessments consider the death as an individual case, and risk of human infection is low." People who had been in contact with the woman were being monitored and so far have not shown any symptoms of bird flu.
Previous findings published in science journals showed the H10N8 was detected among birds at a live-poultry market in Guandong province in 2012 and in water samples taken from a lake in Hunan province in 2007, but this has been the first case of its fatal transmission to a human.
