China's Ministry of Health on Thursday announced the country's seventh human case of H5N1 bird flu.

The infected was a 41-year-old factory worker surnamed Zhou in Sanming City, east China's Fujian Province. She showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Dec. 6 and was hospitalized two days later. She died on Dec. 21, according to a report released by the ministry.

Zhou's samples tested negative of H5N1 virus by the Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Dec. 13, but further tests by the state CDC and the Fujian provincial CDC both showed positive results, said the ministry.

Zhou has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Chinese government, the ministry said.

This is the third human fatality from bird flu reported in China.

Local health authorities have taken measures to check the spread of the virus and those who had close contact with the patient are under strict medical observation, with no abnormal clinical symptoms found so far.

However, no H5N1 bird flu outbreak in animal was detected in the area where the new case was reported, said the health ministry.

The Chinese health ministry has informed the WHO, the regions of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as several countries about the new human case.

Previously, the ministry had reported six human cases of bird flu, including two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, two recovered cases in central China's Hunan Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province respectively, one in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

Source: Xinhua