First bird flu death from H10N8 strain reported in China

BEIJING -- An elderly woman in China has died of the H10N8 strain of bird flu, the first ever reported human infection from that strain of the virus.

The 73-year-old died December 6, six days after contracting the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

The virus has been detected in birds since 1965 in at least seven countries including China, the WHO said.

The specific source of the woman's infection is unknown, the WHO said, although both wild birds and poultry were known to carry the virus and the patient had visited a live bird market four days before becoming ill.

The woman who died in Nanchang, the capital of the landlocked southeastern province of Jiangxi, had an underlying medical condition, according to the WHO. Family members and other people she contacted had no symptoms and no other similar cases were detected in the area, it said.

There is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the new H10N8 virus, say the authorities.

China is at the beginning of its traditional flu season, and has long had a problem with bird flu.

The H7N9 strain of bird flu emerged this year in China and has infected at least 139 people in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, killing 45 of them.

That strain was recently found to resist first-line disease treatments like Tamiflu.

Chinese authorities were investigating the case of H10N8 and had stepped up surveillance measures to detect and control infections, said the WHO.

Also recently, Taiwanese health officials announced a bird flu strain that previously was found only in poultry -- H6N1 -- infected a 20-year-old woman in Taiwan.

She has since fully recovered following treatment with antiviral drugs.