China's Ministry of Health on Thursday announced the country's seventh human case of H5N1 bird flu.

The infected was a 41-year-old factory worker surnamed Zhou in Sanming City, east China's Fujian Province. She showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Dec. 6 and was hospitalized two days later. She died on Dec. 21, according to a report released by the ministry.

Zhou's samples tested negative of H5N1 virus by the Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Dec. 13, but further tests by the state CDC and the Fujian provincial CDC both showed positive results, said the ministry.

Zhou has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese government, the ministry said.

This is the third human fatality from bird flu reported in China.

Local health authorities have taken measures to check the spread of the virus and those who had close contact with the patient are under strict medical observation, with no abnormal clinical symptoms found so far.

However, no H5N1 bird flu outbreak in animal was detected in the area where the new case was reported, said the health ministry.

The Chinese health ministry has informed the WHO, the regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as several countries about the new human case.

Previously, the ministry had reported six human cases of bird flu, including two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, two recovered cases in central China's Hunan Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province respectively, one in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

Also on Thursday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang pledged at a regular press briefing that China will continue to strengthen its cooperation with the world community to deal with the challenge of bird flu.

A total of 141 laboratory-confirmed human cases of bird flu including 73 deaths had been reported to the WHO by Dec. 23 this year, according to the WHO website.

China has reported 31 bird flu outbreaks in poultry this year. As no effective vaccine has been put into use on humans so far, scientists fear the H5N1 strain of bird flu could mutate to a form that could pass easily between people, triggering a global pandemic.

China's home-made human vaccine begun human trials on Dec. 21 with six volunteers receiving the shots. The whole trials will need nine months of tests, but initial results are expected within the first three.

Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, told Xinhua earlier in an interview that the WHO hopes China to share more samples of bird flu collected from animals and human cases with the international society, which would help develop anti-bird flu drugs and vaccine and trace the mutation of the virus.

He warned that it is too early to tell if bird flu in China has been brought under control, as more outbreaks may occur during winter months. He also noted that surveillance and prevention efforts need to be strengthened at grassroots level.

Omi also suggested Chinese farmers improve their farming practice, as China has 14.2 billion poultry and most Chinese rural families keep chickens and ducks in their backyards or even houses.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)