China tightens precautions after spate of new bird flu cases

Winter is usually one of the worst seasons for infectious respiratory diseases. And over the past week, a rash of new bird flu cases have been reported around the country.

On Saturday, an outbreak of the H5N2 strain of bird flu was reported at a poultry farm in north China's Hebei Province. 4,000 chickens died from the infection after first showing symptoms last Tuesday.

On the previous Wednesday, authorities in Jiangxi province confirmed a human case of the new strain, H10N8. The 73-year-old woman who contracted the virus died in hospital. And in neighboring Guangdong province, six human cases of the H7N9 bird flu have been reported since October, including 4 confirmed within the last week. Zhejiang province has also reported five H7N9 human infections in the second half of the year.

The Chinese mainland has reported a total of 143 human infections since it emerged in March.

And earlier this month, Hong Kong confirmed its first two H7N9 patients, an Indonesian national and a mainland resident. China's top health authority has begun tightening supervision of all new pneumonia and flu cases.