16.12.2011

A Hong Kong school was closed today after a dead bird found in the southern Chinese city was tested positive for the H5 strain of the avian influenza virus. 
The closure came after the school clerk, a 48-year-old woman, picked up a sick black-headed gull at the school on Tuesday, which died the next day and was tested positive for the H5 strain. 
She picked up the bird - a common winter visitor - without any protection and developed a fever, sore throat and diarrhoea but has tested negative for Influenza A (H5). She has been cleared in the medical results, but tests on her 11-year-old son are still ongoing, with results expected to be released later today.