China culls birds as flu deaths mount

2013-04-05 95

China faces a new type of bird flu.

Mainland China has six confirmed deaths from a deadly new strain of the virus known as H7N9.

And on Friday authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at this poultry market in Shanghai which has now been closed down.

There are 14 confirmed cases of the H7N9 virus, all of them in eastern China. At least four of the dead are in Shanghai.

At this hospital in the Chinese financial hub doctors say one bird flu patient is fighting for his life in intensive care.

The World Health Organisation said there was no sign of "sustained human-to-human transmission.''

WHO scientists are analysing samples of the virus in case a vaccine is needed.

Meanwhile Hong Kong's government confirmed the city's first suspected case of H7N9 bird flu, found in a seven-year-old girl who had recently travelled to mainland China.