H7N9 bird flu toll in China: 108 infected, 22 dead

An outbreak of a new strain of bird flu continues to plague China.

State-run news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday there have been 108 cases of the new virus called H7N9 along with 22 deaths.

Of the remaining patients, 14 have been discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment, and the other 72 people are being treated in designated hospitals, Xinhua added.

Last Friday, the World Health Organization announced there was no new evidence the H7N9 strain was spreading easily among people in China. There may, however, be sporadic cases of the virus spreading to people who have close contact with infected patients.

Fifteen global and Chinese health experts are on a mission in Beijing and Shanghai to learn more about the H7N9 bird flu virus, said Dr. Michael O'Leary, head of WHO's office in China.

O'Leary says a major focus is to learn how the virus infects humans. "The evidence suggests still that poultry is a vehicle for transmission but epidemiologists haven't yet been able to establish a clear and strong link," O'Leary told reporters in Beijing.

The source of the virus remains unclear because only a handful of birds -- out of tens of thousands that have been tested -- have been found to carry the H7N9 virus. Also, many of the patients have no reported history of contact with birds.

Still, Chinese health and agricultural authorities have closed live poultry markets and slaughtered birds as preventive measures based on suspicion that sick people had contact with infected fowl.

On Thursday, the State Forestry Administration said wild bird sales have been suspended to prevent the spread of the virus.

The team of WHO, Chinese and global experts will also study a few "clusters" of confirmed and potential infections that have emerged in the past three weeks, O'Leary said.

O'Leary maintained that there has been no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission but that it remained unclear how in a few cases, caregivers or neighbors of patients have also become ill.

Even within the rare and isolated examples of potential clusters it is hard to determine if one person got it from another or if they were all exposed to the same source of infection, he said.

This week, Chinese health authorities confirmed that a son of an 87-year-old man in Shanghai who was the earliest known H7N9 case was also infected with the virus. The man had fallen sick in mid-February and died in early March.

At the time, two of his sons, aged 69 and 55, had also been hospitalized with pneumonia. His younger son died and no samples were available for later testing but the older son, who recovered, tested positive for the virus.

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O'Leary said, however, that Chinese health authorities have closely monitored hundreds of family members, caregivers, health workers and friends who have been in contact with patients and that only a handful have signs of H7N9 infections.

The World Health Organization has not recommended that any travel or trade restrictions be applied due to the outbreak.

"Until the source of infection has been identified, it is expected that there will be further cases of human infection with the virus in China," the agency pointed out in an April 22 statement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States has also been monitoring the outbreak.

The WHO has more information on the H7N9 bird flu virus.