SHANGHAI - Four more people in China have been infected with a strain of bird flu, a local government official said Tuesday, bringing the country's total to seven.
A vender stands near cages at a chicken wholesale market on Tuesday in Shanghai. The city on Tuesday activated an emergency response plan following the recent deaths from a lesser-known strain of bird flu. (AP Photo)
Three women and one man had contracted H7N9 avian influenza, the health bureau in the eastern province of Jiangsu said in a statement.
All of the new cases were undergoing treatment and there was no evidence yet to link the four, who lived in different cities in the province, it said.
China's central government said Sunday that two men, aged 87 and 27, died in Shanghai in early March after being infected with H7N9 avian influenza.
It was the first time the sub-type was known to have been transmitted to humans.
A woman from the eastern province of Anhui is also in critical condition after being infected with the strain.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday played down fears over the new type of bird flu, but said it was crucial to find out how the virus infected humans.
"It is of concern to WHO and we will be following this with the health authorities in China to know more," spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva before the new cases were announced.