BEIJING, Dec. 29 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING MORE INFO UNDER 2ND GRAF)

China's Ministry of Health announced the country's seventh human case of H5N1 bird flu, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

The affected person was a 41-year-old factory worker surnamed Zhou from Sanming City in east China's Fujian Province, the report said, adding she died Dec. 21 after showing symptoms of fever and pneumonia on Dec. 6.

Zhou's samples tested negative of H5N1 virus by the Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Dec. 13, but further tests by the state CDC and the Fujian provincial CDC both showed positive results, the report said.

The ministry said Zhou has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization and the Chinese government, according to the report.

This is the third human fatality from bird flu reported in China, but no H5N1 bird flu outbreak in animal was detected in the area where the new case was reported, the report quoted the health ministry as saying.

The report said China previously had reported six human cases of bird flu, including two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, two recovered cases in central China's Hunan Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province respectively, one in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

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