New deadly strain of bird flu in China
According to Dr Leo Poon Lit-man, associate professor, School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, while there is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted from human to human, medical authorities need to be on the alert.
"It really depends on whether this H7N9 virus is transmissible between humans ... that key question needs to be answered," Dr Poon told CNN. "So far, we do not know the full spectrum of the clinical presentations of these H7N9 patients.
"In the beginning, we were only able to detect it because there were some severe cases and some people actually died. They are trying enhance the surveillance so that's we can detect those cases where there is only a mild infection."
He said evidence of human-to-human transmission would put the H7N5 problem into a different category.
"If it can (transmit human to human), then it's a very different scenario -- we would not be able to detect asymptomatic carriers and that would be a huge problem," he said.
The discovery of the carrier has meant Beijing has notched up a gear in its monitoring efforts, extending its action from a passive 'syndrome surveillance' to a more active 'pathogen monitoring'.
This involves actively seeking out and targeting populations at risk from the disease.
Health officials in China say there have been 63 confirmed cases of H7N5 and 14 confirmed deaths.
Several cities in eastern China have suspended trading in live poultry in an effort to contain the problem.
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