China's Health Minister Chen Zhu admitted here Tuesday that the country faced a "grim" situation to prevent and control bird flu human infection.

A 16-year-old boy died of bird flu in central Hunan Province Tuesday morning, the third death in China from the disease so far this year.

"It is the high season of human bird flu cases," Chen said at a meeting here.

He asked health departments across the country to double their efforts and well implement measures to prevent and control the disease.

Health departments will coordinate with the agriculture and commerce authorities to control bird flu outbreaks among fowls so as to prevent them from spreading to human, he said.

Hospitals will spare more resources to diagnose and treat human bird flu cases while health departments will tighten the monitoring of the epidemic.

Photo taken on Jan. 13, 2009 shows the living black-headed gulls in the wetland on the bank of the Yellow River in Liujiaxia Township in Yongjing County of northwest China's Gansu Province, China. [xinhua]

"We will inform the public about the epidemic situation and the prevention work without delay," he said.

However, a bird flu expert denied a large-scale outbreak of human bird flu cases at the same meeting.

"The current cases are separate cases. There's no connection," said Shu Yuelong, vice director of virus control and prevention with the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. "But these cases warned us of improving prevention and supervision over the epidemic, and ensuring early detection and diagnosis when new cases are found."

So far four human bird flu cases have been reported in Beijing and in three other provinces, with three fatalities.

The only living patient, a two-year-old girl in north China's Shanxi Province, was still in a critical condition.

"We remain alert to any changes in the pattern, but the cases so far conform with seasonal patterns we have seen in other years and in other countries," said the World Health Organization (WHO) China office in an email interview with Xinhua.

China reported eight cases and six deaths in the first quarter of 2006, one case and one death in the same time of 2007 and three cases and three deaths between January and March in 2008, according to the WHO China office.

The WHO has not changed its pandemic alert level, which remains at Phase 3, the email statement said. "This signifies that there has been no or no efficient human-to-human transmission of the virus."

The WHO suggested that it should be important to treat each case seriously and rule out any changes of the virus or in the transmission routes.

The WHO will continue to monitor the situation and stay in close contact with China's Ministry of Health, the statement said, adding that it will provide technical assistance if requested by Chinese authorities.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2009)