China records world's first human death from rare bird flu strain

Guangdong woman may have contracted virus from wet market, World Health Organisation says

Workers cull chickens during a bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong. Reuters

A Chinese woman has become the first person to die of a rare strain of bird flu, according to the World Health Organisation.

The 56-year-old from the southern Guangdong province had underlying health conditions and may have contracted the virus at a wet market, the WHO said.

The woman developed symptoms in February and died on March 16 after being admitted to hospital for pneumonia.

She was the third person known to have been infected with the H3N8 subtype of bird flu.

Two cases were reported in China last year.

The strain, which first emerged in 2002, is known to infect horses, seals and dogs.

The patient had a "history of exposure to live poultry" before contracting the disease and previously kept birds at her home.

The WHO said it believes last year's patients, both of whom survived, probably became sick after "direct or indirect exposure" to live poultry.

The risk of the virus spreading among humans is low, it added, but called for "global surveillance" to detect changes among circulating flu strains affecting humans and animals.

It comes as China recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic that isolated the country and shuttered much of its economy for more than three years.

Beijing imposed some of the toughest lockdown measures when the virus emerged in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan.

Last month it announced it would reopen borders to foreign tourists after three years of closure.