The Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed that a man died of bird flu in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 12.

The case involves a 62-year-old male farmer surnamed Li, who fell ill on June 19 with symptoms of fever and pneumonia.

He became seriously ill soon after and died on July 12 after treatment failed.

An epidemic survey showed that Li did not travel in the month before he was taken ill.

He did not have any contact with infected humans or poultry.

The tests made by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention last month and early this month proved that Li had bird flu.

Experts from the ministry decided that he was infected, following definitions of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese authorities.

The local health department in Xinjiang adopted immediate prevention and control measures after Li fell ill.

No abnormal symptoms were found among people that had close contact with the patient.

The ministry has informed the WHO of the case.

Last Tuesday, the ministry said that the first laboratory-confirmed death from bird flu on the Chinese mainland occurred in November 2003 rather than 2005, which was the original starting point of China's H5N1 fatality timeline.

The 24-year-old Beijing man who contracted bird flu three years ago died during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). At that time, the man was diagnosed with serious pneumonia without a clear cause. Because testing at that time showed he had not died of SARS, experts kept his sample for further research.

This case means that China had the first human case in the current H5N1 cycle, which began in late 2003, according to sources with the WHO Beijing Office.

Source: China Daily