Chinese woman dies in new H5N6 case

Health authority in southwest China's Yunnan Province said Saturday that a woman has died after contracting H5N6 avian flu.

The 37-year-old woman from Shangri-La City in Deqen prefecture developed symptoms on Monday and died on Friday. She was later confirmed as having been infected with the bird flu, according to the Yunnan Health and Family Planning Commission.

It said experts believe this was an isolated case, and that nobody in close contact with the patient had reported symptoms, indicating no human-to-human transmission in this case.

In May last year, a man from southwest China's Sichuan Province died after contracting H5N6 in the world's first known human infection with the strain. The virus had previously been isolated to waterfowls and wild ducks, experts said.