A man in southwestern China has died of bird flu, health authorities said on Saturday, becoming the second fatality from the H5N1 virus this year.
The 31-year-old died in hospital in the city of Guiyang on Friday, the Guizhou province health department said in a statement, adding that no other human cases of avian flu had been reported in the province.
Another city resident, a 21-year-old woman, died from the virus earlier this month.
The Xinhua news agency said both of them had come into close contact with birds but it was not known if the cases were related.
The H5N1 virus typically spreads from birds to humans through direct contact, but experts fear it could mutate into a form transmissible between humans with the potential to trigger a pandemic.
More than 365 people have died of bird flu globally since the virus re-emerged in 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.
