10.02.2015

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) has been notified by the National Health and Family Planning Commission of a confirmed human case of avian influenza A(H5N6) today (February 9) affecting a 44-year-old man in Yunnan province.
The patient, with poultry exposure history, has developed fever, cough and chills since January 27. He was admitted to a local hospital on the same day and died on February 6.
Of the three known H5N6 cases in humans, two have proved fatal. The first was detected last May in Sichuan province, and the second in late December in Guangdong province.
A handful of H5N6 outbreaks have also been reported recently in poultry, including one earlier this month in China's Hunan province. Vietnam and Laos have also reported outbreaks over the past year. In November the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the H5N6 virus emerged in China in late May, and it identified more than 3,400 outbreaks in poultry in China, Laos, and Vietnam.