BEIJING - A MAN in east China died of bird flu on Sunday, the country's 17th fatality from the H5N1 virus, state media reported.

The 24-year-old man was hospitalised last Tuesday after being diagnosed with pneumonia, Xinhua news agency reported early Monday, citing the Jiangsu provincial health department.

The man's condition deteriorated in hospital and he died on Sunday, it said.

Separate tests by the provincial and national disease control centres indicated the man was positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza, the agency said, adding the health ministry had confirmed he was infected with bird flu.

The man, surnamed Lu, had no contact with dead poultry, the Jiangsu health department said, according to Xinhua. Jiangsu also had no outbreaks of bird flu, the agency said, citing the provincial animal husbandry bureau.

All 69 people who had close contact with Mr Lu had been put under medical observation but none had so far shown any symptoms, Xinhua said.

With the latest case, the virus has so far infected at least 26 people in China, 17 of whom died. The country's previous bird flu fatality was a teenage soldier who died in June.

While the disease is usually associated with contact with infected birds, China has a widespread poultry vaccination programme and only one confirmed human bird flu case has followed a matching outbreak in poultry.

China conducted a huge campaign last year to contain the disease, aggressively slaughtering tens of thousands of poultry and stepping up public education efforts.

Ill-equipped
Vice Agriculture Minister Yin Chengjie however warned in September this year that much of the country remained ill-equipped to prevent the spread of bird flu.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 206 people worldwide since 2003, according to the latest World Health Organisation figures on November 12.

Asia has accounted for most of the victims, with 91 deaths in Indonesia alone and 46 in Vietnam.

Scientists fear that H5N1 will eventually mutate into a form that is much more easily transmissible between humans, triggering a global pandemic.

A UN and World Bank report last week warned that the world remained unprepared to cope with a human pandemic arising from bird flu.

The original source of the virus is thought to have been wild migratory birds. -- AFP