The Ministry of Health confirmed another human case of H5N1 avian influenza in east China's Anhui Province on Wednesday, the third reported in China, as the country's 25th outbreak amongst birds this year was reported in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The health ministry said a 35-year-old woman farmer named Xu in Xiuning County developed fever and pneumonia-like symptoms on November 11 after contact with sick and dead poultry. She died on Tuesday.

Tests by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention had found her to be H5N1 positive.

The ministry has reported the confirmation to the WHO, according to the WHO's Beijing Office, and has informed Hong Kong, Macao and other countries.

China's first two human cases were confirmed on November 16, along with a further suspected fatal case.

They involved a nine-year-old boy who since recovered in Xiangtan County of Hunan Province, central China, and a 24-year-old woman farmer who died on November 10 in Zongyang County of Anhui Province in the east.

The boy's 12-year-old sister, who had similar symptoms as her brother and died on October 17, could not be confirmed as having had bird flu because her remains were cremated before adequate tests could be completed.

"There is no proof of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in the world so far," Chen Xianyi, head of the contingency office of the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua News Agency in an interview.

The new outbreak in Xinjiang's Miquan County, confirmed by the agriculture ministry last night, killed more than 2,000 chickens on November 15. So far 84,000 poultry have been culled to curb the spread of the disease.

Vice Minister of Agriculture Yin Chengjie said Monday that China is facing a "severe" situation in fighting bird flu. The government vowed last week to vaccinate all the country's 14 billion poultry to fight the epidemic.

On Tuesday, the State Food and Drug Administration approved a possible Chinese-developed human bird flu vaccine for clinical tests, saying pre-clinical trials had found it to be safe and effective.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2005)