China announced its 10th human case of bird flu infection last night after a woman (29) from the southwest of the country was diagnosed with the H5N1 virus.
The woman works in a farm goods market in Jinhua Town in Sichuan Province, the Ministry of Health website said.
Jinhua lies in the rural outskirts of Chengdu, the provincial capital, which has a total population of close to 10 million, including many farmers.
She was the province's second human case of bird flu this month, after the Chinese health ministry announced last Wednesday that a woman (35) from there died of it on January 11th.
To date, six of the 10 Chinese people officially confirmed to have contracted bird flu have died. The latest fatal infection was in Dazhu County, Sichuan, 300 kilometres east of Chengdu.