Bird Flu death man 'caught virus after jogging in park' in China

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Bird Flu death man 'caught virus after jogging in park' in China

A jogger who died from Bird Flu may have caught the deadly virus after running

through a wetlands park full of migratory flocks, medical officials in China

claimed on Sunday.

The 39-year-old Chinese man, identified only by his family name, Chen, died of

multiple organ failure on Saturday – a week after being admitted to hospital

with pneumonia in the southern industrial city of Shenzhen, located just across

the boarder from Hong Kong.

" We discovered he had taken five days' leave before he fell sick. He went

jogging every morning in an area where there are many migratory birds, " said

Chinese Health Ministry official He Jianfeng.

The medical team are now probing whether Mr Chen, a bus driver, contracted the

deadly H5N1 avian flu strain from the wintering wild flocks or via their

droppings during his regular morning jogs through the Waterlands Resort wetland

park.

He had had no direct contact with poultry – the source of most bird-to-human

contagion – and had not travelled in the past month, Mr He said.

Mr Chen is the first fatal case of the H5N1 virus in China in 18 months.

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But his death has put the world's most populous country – and the rest of the

region – on high alert.

The H5N1 virus, which kills 60 per cent of those infected when it jumps species,

has killed 332 people worldwide since 2003, according to WHO figures.