China reports 71 H7N9 infections

NANJING/HANGZHOU - East China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces reported eight new H7N9 infection cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of H7N9 cases across the country to 71.

According to the health department of Jiangsu Province, H7N9 infections were confirmed in a 56-year-old man surnamed Fu, a 21-year-old woman surnamed Hu and a 72-year-old man surnamed Zhu on Tuesday.

All three patients are in critical condition.

None of the 25 people who have had close contact with them have shown any abnormal symptoms.

Meanwhile, according to test results from the Zhejiang provincial disease control and prevention center, three men and two women tested positive for the H7N9 virus on Tuesday.

The Health Bureau of Zhejiang Province confirmed five new H7N9 cases on Tuesday. The patients include a 56-year-old man surnamed Hu, a 57-year-old man surnamed Qian, a 62-year-old man surnamed Ye, a 58-year-old woman surnamed Sun and a 72-year-old woman surnamed Jin.

All five are in critical condition.

Hu was engaged in pigeon cultivation and sales before he was confirmed to be infected with the virus.

As of Tuesday, Zhejiang has confirmed 21 H7N9 cases, including two that have ended in death.

Hangzhou, provincial capital of Zhejiang, has temporarily closed two poultry markets in the downtown district, and poultry trading in another 474 farmer's markets has been banned since Monday.

As of Tuesday, 71 cases of the H7N9 strain of bird flu have been reported across China, including one in Beijing, 24 in Shanghai, two in the central province of Henan, 21 in the eastern province of Zhejiang, 20 in the eastern province of Jiangsu and three in Anhui Province in the east.

Fourteen of the cases have ended in death.

After treatments were successful, a four-year-old boy who had tested positive for the H7N9 virus was discharged from a Shanghai hospital on April 10, according to local health authorities. He has been the only confirmed case to make a full recovery.