Two people in China have died and another remains critical after falling ill with a strain of bird flu not detected before in humans, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Both of those who died, men aged 27 and 87, lived in Shanghai, while a 35-year-old woman in Chuzhou city in nearby Anhui province is in the hospital, the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission said Sunday, according to Xinhua.
The victims all had initial symptoms of fever and coughing that then developed into severe pneumonia and difficulty in breathing, Xinhua reported.
A team of experts assigned by the health commission established that the three cases were human infections of H7N9 avian influenza, which has not been found in humans previously, the news agency reported.
Investigators haven't yet figured out how the three people contracted the virus, according to the commission. It ruled out the theory that they had infected one another.
"It's really important to understand where this virus is coming from," said Malik Peiris, a professor at Hong Kong University's School of Public Health.
He said the H7N9 strain of avian flu, already known to exist in wild birds, had probably been transmitted to poultry, from where it infected the humans.
None of the 88 people who had close contact with the victims have shown symptoms of the flu, the commission said, suggesting the virus isn't highly contagious among humans.
According to Xinhua, the 87-year-old man fell ill on February 19 and died on March 4; the 27-year-old man became unwell on February 27 and died on March 10; and the female victim got sick on March 9.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Preservation on Friday separated the H7N9 bird flu virus from samples from the victims, Xinhua reported.
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