Chinese authorities said Wednesday that a 73-year-old woman died after she was infected with a strain of bird flu not previously found in humans.
The woman in the city of Nanchang died of H10N8 bird flu virus, the Associated Press reports. China’s Centers for Disease Control confirmed the death. The new strain is only the latest case of bird flu this year. In the spring, the H7N9 strain of the virus infected at least 140 people, killing 45 in mainland China.
The World Health Organization is working with Chinese authorities to learn more about the new virus. “It’s worrisome any time a disease jumps the species barrier from animals to humans,” WHO spokesman Timothy O’Leary told the AP. “There’s no evidence of human-to-human transmission yet.”
[AP]