China’s 16th victim of avian influenza: 19 -year-old solider

“A 19-year-old Chinese soldier, (Chang), has died of the virulent strain of bird flu, the country's 16th reported death from the virus,,, The man, who was stationed in the southern province of Fujian, died Sunday after being hospitalized May 14 with a fever and a cough.

Last year, it was disclosed that new tests on the body of a 24-year-old soldier who died in 2003 in Beijing confirmed that he succumbed to bird flu - one of the earliest deaths in a resurgent wave of the disease that swept through the region.

While H5N1 is most commonly passed from sick poultry to humans who have close contact with the infected birds, the WHO has said that Cheng's case was China's 24th of 25 human infections that occurred without a reported outbreak among poultry - indicating a weak surveillance system and a still-circulating virus.”

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6684172,00.html