The woman, named as Huang Yanqing, died in the Chinese capital on Monday after she fell ill on December 24. According to the official Xinhua News Agency, Huang became ill after buying and cleaning nine ducks in December at a market in Hebei province, which borders Beijing. Xinhua informed that 116 people had been in close contact with Huang and that one of them, a nurse, had contracted a fever but recovered.

Officials of the 17-million-inhabitant city held an emergency meeting on Monday evening, also informing their counterparts in Hong Kong and Macao, Xinhua said. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was informed by China's Ministry of Health, and expected to be kept updated.
 

"We are concerned by any case of human H5N1 infection, however, this single case, which appears to have occurred during the slaughtering and preparation of poultry, does not change our risk assessment," the WHO said in a statement.

 

According to WHO data, released in mid-December, 247 people had died from the bird virus out of 391 cases since the virus resurfaced in Asia in 2003.

Commonly known as the “bird flu” or “avian flu,” avian influenza is a type of influenza caused by certain viruses that have adapted to birds. In 1997, the H5N1 strain adapted to humans and killed six people – it was Hong Kong’s biggest outbreak of the bird flu. Over 300,000 in wholesale and retail and almost 1,000,000 birds in local farms were slaughtered in 2001.

 

The bird flu virus has mutated over the last few years, although it may take some time before it turns into a human-to-human type of virus. The highly pathogenic Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 is causing global concern as a potential pandemic threat. Health experts fear that the co-existence of human flu viruses and avian flu viruses will provide an opportunity for genetic material to be exchanged, creating a new influenza strain that may cause fatal human infections.