BEIJING, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- At least two people in China have died from bird flu and another has been diagnosed with the disease, Chinese officials said Wednesday.
A report from the state-run Xinhua news agency cited the Chinese Ministry of Health as saying two human cases involving the H5N1 avian flu strain had been found in central Hunan Province and a third case was said to be in eastern Anhui.
The World Health Organization said the fatalities were a 12-year-old girl and a 24-year-old woman who worked with poultry. While these were the first human deaths from bird flu in China, there have been about 70 deaths associated with avian flu in Asia this year.
Chinese officials said there were 11 outbreaks of avian flu among fowl over the last month.
Chinese Ministry of Agriculture officer Jia Youling said some 14 billion birds on poultry farms would be vaccinated against the disease, but many families keep small flocks of fowl for their own use and those often are not vaccinated.
