The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday refuted rumors that China was hiding human cases of bird flu.

Dick Thompson, an official of WHO, told reporters that concerning some news reports in German newspapers, he wanted to say that WHO did not believe that China was hiding any human cases of bird flu.

WHO believed that China was notifying the organization as rapidly as it could and it was being as transparent as possible in this outbreak, he said.

German newspapers cited a Japanese virologist saying that bird flu has killed 300 people in China, including seven cases caused by human-to-human transmission.

China's Ministry of Health has confirmed from the WHO Beijing office that there was no Japanese expert in WHO's mission in Hunan Province early this month.

Source: Xinhua