CNN.com - China reports sixth bird flu death

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(CNN) -- China has recorded its sixth death from the avian flu virus, according to a report on the Chinese Health Ministry's Web site.

The victim was a 35-year old woman from Jianyang in Sichuan province who slaughtered poultry. She was the ninth person in the country to contract bird flu.

The woman fell ill on January 3, the report said, was hospitalized on January 10 and died the next day.

Earlier a U.S. official said that nations attending a bird flu meeting in the Chinese capital of Beijing had pledged $1.9 billion to fight the disease, exceeding expectations set by the World Bank.

The latest Chinese woman victim, identified only by the surname Wei, lived in the village of Zhoujiaxiang on the outskirts of Jiangyang, a city in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the Health Ministry said.

The woman lived in a residential compound of eight families where chickens began dying in late December, according to Roy Wadia, a WHO spokesman in Beijing. He said she was asked to kill dying birds.

"She was definitely in close contact with sick or dead chickens that did have H5N1," said Wadia. He said tests after her death confirmed she had the virus.

People who had close contact with her were under medical observation but none showed flu symptoms, said a ministry statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.

China has suffered 28 outbreaks of bird flu in chickens, ducks and other domesticated birds since October 19.

Most human infections have been traced to contact with sick birds and Chinese health officials say more are inevitable if the country does not curb outbreaks in poultry.

Experts worry that the virus could mutate into a form that would be easily transmitted between people, sparking a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

The Chinese government says it has destroyed 22.5 million birds over the past year in order to contain repeated bird flu outbreaks in poultry in areas throughout the country.

China's other human deaths were reported in the Guangxi region in the south and in the provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui in the east and Fujian in the southeast.

In addition, Chinese investigators believe a 12-year-old girl who died in the southern province of Hunan had the virus, though the WHO says it cannot confirm that she died of bird flu.

As the two-day donor conference neared an end Wednesday, a U.S. official told news agencies that more than $1.9 billion had been promised. (Full story)

"It appears they are going to get well over $1.9 billion," The Associated Press quoted Nancy Powell, the U.S. coordinator for health, science and the environment, telling reporters in Beijing.

The United States has promised more than $334 million to fight bird flu, the largest pledged by any country.

The EU on Tuesday raised its pledge to $121 million. The 25-nation bloc, which is co-hosting the conference along with China and the World Bank, initially announced a pledge of $100 million. (Full story)

The increase came after Turkey announced a fourth child had died from the disease, the first deaths outside of Asia.

So far, 21 people in Turkey have caught the virus, with health officials saying they apparently all touched or played with birds. The latest case was reported Tuesday after preliminary tests were carried out on a child.

Since the bird flu emerged in Asia in 2003, at least 77 people have died and millions of chickens and birds have either been killed or culled.

Indonesia's health ministry said a 3-year-old boy who died Tuesday was being tested for bird flu, Reuters reported. His 13-year-old sister died of the lethal H5N1 strain a few days earlier.

New Year threat

Experts say the deadly H5N1 virus poses the biggest threat in the colder months in affected regions, and could also spread in east Asia as people celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Then, hundreds of millions of Chinese will be on the move, potentially spreading bird flu in a country where the disease has spread rapidly among birds since late last year, where five people have died.

"The Chinese government has learned from the SARS experience, they know the movement of people particularly with infected birds is going to be a big challenge for them," said Margaret Chan, assistant director general of the WHO.

China reports sixth bird flu death

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