China reports fourth H7N9 bird flu death

Another Chinese man has died of a new strain of bird flu, bringing the total number of deaths from the H7N9 virus to four.

The Shanghai city government said Thursday that the 48-year-old man transported chickens and ducks in the eastern province of Jiangsu, and had direct contact with fowl that may have carried the virus, The Associated Press reported.

He was the eleventh reported person to have contracted the infection.

Meanwhile, China’s agricultural authorities said the infectious H7N9 avian flu virus has been detected from pigeon samples collected at a marketplace in Shanghai.

The samples were collected at a marketplace selling agricultural products in the Songjiang District of Shanghai, and tested H7N9 positive by the national avian flu reference laboratory.

Given that the H7N9 strain is considered not easily contracted by humans, there is no vaccine against the virus. The majority of humans, who have died from bird flu, were infected by another type of the disease, namely the H5N1 strain.

Since 2003, the H5N1 strain has caused more than 360 confirmed human deaths and tens of millions of birds have died from the virus.