Bird flu has spread to a new province in China, authorities say, with the death toll so far at 22. Source: AAP
INTERNATIONAL experts probing China's deadly H7N9 bird flu virus say it's "one of the most lethal influenza viruses" seen so far and conclude that the likely source of infection is poultry.
China had confirmed 108 cases and 22 deaths since the infections were announced on March 31, with a higher proportion of cases in older people.
"This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses we have seen so far," said Keiji Fukuda, one of the leading flu experts for the World Health Organisation, which has led a team on a week-long visit to China to study H7N9.
"We think this virus is more transmissible to humans than H5N1," he said, referring to the strain the WHO estimates has killed more than 360 people globally since 2003.
"When we look at influenza viruses this is an unusually dangerous virus," he said.
But we are really at the beginning of our understanding, he said.
The team said the likely source of infection was poultry, as chickens, ducks and pigeons from poultry markets had tested positive for H7N9.
Experts have previously said the animal reservoir for H7N9 appeared to be unspecified birds.
There are worries over the prospect of such a virus mutating into a form easily transmissible between humans, which could then have the potential to trigger a pandemic.
Chinese health officials have acknowledged so-called "family clusters", where members of a single family have become infected but have so far declined to put it down to human-to-human transmission.
Such cases could be examples of what health officials call limited human-to-human transmission, in which those in close contact with the ill become infected, as opposed to widespread, or "sustained", transmission.
So far most H7N9 cases have been confined to the commercial hub Shanghai and nearby provinces in eastern China.
The number of reported new cases in Shanghai has seen a "dramatic slowdown", Cox said, calling the reduction in the frequency of new cases "very encouraging".
Tuesday marked the fourth consecutive day where no new cases were reported in Shanghai, although one was reported in Taiwan.
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