By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Two people who had been sickened by bird flu in China have died, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, bringing the total number of people killed by the disease on the mainland to five.
A 10-year-old girl from Guangxi province in the south and a 35-year-old man from Jiangxi province in the east died last month from complications from the disease, said Roy Wadia, a spokesman for the WHO in Beijing.
The girl, a student surnamed Tang, had been sick with a fever and pneumonia since Nov. 23 and underwent emergency treatment, state media has reported.
The man, a self-employed vendor, developed the same symptoms on Dec. 4, state media said. Identified only by his surname, Guo, he had been recovering in the hospital.
On Tuesday, China reported that a 6-year-old boy in the central province of Hunan - the country's eighth human case - had contracted bird flu late last month and was in critical condition.
Two farmers in the central province of Anhui and a farmer in the northern province of Liaoning - all women - were the other fatalities.