A Chinese flu expert said Monday that China was likely to see more individual human bird flu cases, which he labeled an 'epidemic'.

"The situation urges us to further strengthen prevention and supervision over the epidemic, and ensure early detection and diagnosis when new cases are found,"said Shu Yuelong, vice director of virus control and prevention with the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Statistics show that spring and winter are more vulnerable for the spread of bird flu," Shu said.

More than 70 percent of bird flu cases reported in China happened in spring and winter as the virus was more active at a lower temperature compared with summer, Shu said.

Shu suggested that the public should stay away from sick or dead poultry and reduce contact with live poultry, as poultry was still the main channel for the spread of the virus.

China now faces "a grim situation" in bird flu prevention, threatened by frequent outbreaks in neighboring countries, the Ministry of Agriculture has said. Other threats came from the brisk poultry trade ahead of the Spring Festival and difficulties in taking prevention measures at loosely managed household farms.

The latest cases occurring in China had no inner connection, and no bird flu epidemic had been detected in China so far, he said.

China has reported four human bird flu cases this year. Two people have died -- a 19-year-old woman in Beijing on Jan. 5 and a 27-year-old woman in Shandong Province on Jan. 17. In the other case, a two-year-old girl in Shanxi Province was still in critical condition.

As the latest case, a 16-year-old male student had been confirmed as infected with bird flu in Hunan Province. Local officials said on Monday that the boy was in a critical condition.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2009)