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BEIJING - A 26-year-old woman from China's eastern province of Fujian has contracted bird flu but is in a stable condition, state media reported Wednesday.
The woman, surnamed Lin, showed signs of fever and pneumonia on January 10 and was hospitalised.
She tested positive for the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Xinhua news agency said, citing the health ministry.
No outbreak among animals has been detected in the area where Lin lives in Fujian's Zhangpu county and those who have had close contact with her have been placed under observation by local health authorities, it said.
It is the 11th human case of bird flu in China, seven of whom have died.
Nearly 200,000 chickens have been culled in the northern province of Shanxi after the world's most populous nation reported its first outbreak of the disease in nearly a month, the government said Wednesday.
About 15,000 chickens died from the virus on a large farm in two days last week, the agriculture ministry said.
Local authorities immediately began culling poultry within a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius of the farm and had destroyed 187,745 birds so far, the ministry said.
China has now reported 34 H5N1 outbreaks among poultry since the beginning of last year, with most appearing since October.
The disease has had a dramatic impact on the world's biggest poultry industry, which produces 14 billion birds annually.
Despite attempting to vaccinate every chicken in the country, the government announced last November that 21.1 million birds were slaughtered in efforts to contain the disease.
The previous outbreak was reported on January 10 in the southern province of Guizhou, although human fatalities have since been recorded in areas where the virus was not detected.
The latest flare-up, in Shanxi province's Yangquan city, occurred during China's week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which officially ended on Saturday.
United Nations experts had warned the widespread movement of people and poultry during such festivals could fuel the spread of the virus.
Chicken consumption skyrockets during the holiday period in many Asian countries, when birds are often exchanged as gifts to be slaughtered at home to ensure freshness.
A chicken infected with bird flu was smuggled into Hong Kong from neighbouring Guangdong province as a gift, sparking a health scare in the territory.
It was unclear, however, what caused the latest outbreak in Shanxi province as the agriculture ministry did not release any details.
"Transportation is one of the factors, the movement of animals and poultry... migratory birds could be one reason," said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's representative in China, Noureddin Mona.
"I doubt someone can figure out very quickly what's the cause. The most important thing for us is the virus is still circulating and jumping from one area to another."
The World Health Organisation says of the 165 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans detected since 2003, 88 people have died.
Most of the victims have been in Asia, although four have died this year in Turkey and two in northern Iraq.
The World Organisation for Animal Health on Wednesday confirmed H5N1 was detected for the first time in Africa, wiping out 40,000 battery hens on a farm in northern Nigeria.
- AFP /ls
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