A 21-year-old woman has caught the H5N1 strain of bird flu in central China's Hunan Province but is recovering in hospital, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The farmer was found sick on January 23 after coming into contact with birds that died of the disease, Xinhua quoted provincial health authorities as saying.
People who had close contact with the patient are under observation, but none of them has fallen ill so far. China has reported the case to the World Health Organisation, Xinhua added.