BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 227 people who had close contact with two bird flu patients in the provinces of Hunan and Guizhou are under observation, although none has yet been found to be infected, health officials said Tuesday.

A Hunan health department spokesman said 140 people had been examined including the patients' relatives and medical workers in Changsha County and Huaihua City as of Tuesday noon. No abnormalities were found.

A two-year-old girl fell ill on Jan. 7 in Changsha County and was confirmed to be infected with bird flu in Shanxi Province on Saturday. On Tuesday morning, a 16-year-old male student, who fell ill on Jan. 8 in Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou, died in a hospital in Huaihua.

The Qiandongnan prefectural government said Tuesday that 87 people who had close contact with the student were not affected.

Three people have died of bird flu and another has been infected in China so far this year. The first death was a 19-year-old woman in Beijing on Jan. 5, followed by a 27-year-old woman in Shandong on Jan. 17 and a 16-year-old male student in Hunan on Jan. 20. A two-year-old patient surnamed Peng was still receiving treatment in Shanxi.

The fatality rate for bird flu patients is more than 60 percent.

I though this bird flu deal was over, why it's still around?

lol

Because birds are carrying them around unless you kill all birds.

It's never really over.

There will always be new cases of bird flu jumping from one country to the next, but human cases and deaths are the ones that are rare. They need to take care of the situation fast, identify the source, kill all the birds, avoid another pandemic.

lol good time to invest in chinese hospitals and medicine. scientist and all those smart people have already predicted a major lung infection outbreak. they say we are long overdue lol. ppl have already invested in bird flu vaccines. even the ones to cure possible strains that havent even been out yet.

anyway thats wut i read in some magazine.

His birdie is too small to kill