Suspected bird flu patient in Beijing dies

Suspected bird flu patient in Beijing dies

www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-06 15:41:01

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BEIJING, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A suspected bird flu patient in Beijing has died, local health bureau said Tuesday. The woman named Huang Yanqing died at 7:20 a.m. Monday. Her age is not known yet. Huang, a native of east China's Fujian Province, bought nine ducks at a market in Beijing's neighboring Hebei Province on Dec. 19 along with two town fellows. She cleaned the ducks' internal organs, according to the Beijing Health Bureau. She gave three ducks to her father, uncle and a friend and kept the other six ducks. The bureau said 116 people, including the patient's 14 family members and neighbor and 102 medical workers, had been in close contact with the patient. One nurse who had been in contact with the patient suffered from fever. The nurse has recovered. Beijing has reported the case to the World Health Organization, and health authorities of China's Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. An emergency meeting was convened in Beijing on Monday evening to handle the bird flu case. Beijing has started bird flu prevention and control measures, including disinfecting and isolating the patient's house and wards she had used and closely monitoring further cases by medical institutions at all levels. Last month, a baby girl was diagnosed as having the H9N2 bird flu strain and received treatment in a Hong Kong hospital.