GUANGZHOU, China -- A 44-year-old migrant worker who had contact with dead poultry was suspected to have caught the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in the southern Chinese city of Shanwei, the government said Monday.
The female patient - identified only by her surname Zhang - became sick Feb. 16 and is still seriously ill, according to a statement on the Web site of the Health Department for Guangdong province.
China has already reported two H5N1 deaths this year. Since 2003 when the virus began ravaging poultry stocks in Asia, the country has had 19 human bird flu deaths, the World Health Organization has said.
Experts worry the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted among humans, potentially igniting a pandemic. Most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.
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