16.11.2005

Chinese health officials Wednesday confirmed the country's first three human cases of avian influenza.
Two cases were confirmed in the central province of Hunan and one in the eastern province of Anhui, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The report did not elaborate. But Chinese and World Health Organization experts had been studying the case of a 12-year-old girl and her brother, both of whom fell ill after their village in Hunan suffered a avian influenza outbreak in poultry.
The fatalities were the 12-year-old girl in Hunan and a 24-year-old pregnant woman (Zhou Maoya), in Yantan - Anhui (She developed symptoms on 1 November, was hospitalized with severe pneumonia on 7 November, and died on 10 November), said Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in Beijing. The third case was the girl's 9-year-old brother (He was hospitalized with respiratory symptoms on 17 October ), who fell ill but recovered.