In Brief

Deaths from New Bird Flu Rise to 26

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Health officials know of 126 people who fell ill from a new strain of bird flu in China, 26 of whom have died, according to the World Health Organization.

The two most recent cases were from Fujian, a south-eastern province in China, and Hunan, an inland province. No cases of infection with the flu strain, called H7N9, have been detected outside of China and Taiwan to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Between April 5 and April 29, 37 people who traveled from China to the United States and showed symptoms of flu were tested for the H7N9 virus, according to a recent CDC report. None of these travelers had H7N9, and most did not have the flu. Right now, there are no reports of sustained human-to-human transmission with the virus.

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Rachael Rettner
Rachael Rettner
Contributor

Rachael is a Live Science contributor, and was a former channel editor and senior writer for Live Science between 2010 and 2022. She has a master's degree in journalism from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She also holds a B.S. in molecular biology and an M.S. in biology from the University of California, San Diego. Her work has appeared in Scienceline, The Washington Post and Scientific American.