Health officials from China's Hunan province today said a 47-year-old woman who worked as a farmer in Shaoyang City has died from an H5N6 avian flu infection, Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported today. The woman's illness marks the 16th infection from H5N6, 10 of which were fatal.
Higly pathogenic H5N8 was detected in Iran, Denmark, Poland, and the Netherlands.
The WHO says it's unlikely that a person will contract H5N8 avian flu.
The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) said today there were two new cases of MERS-CoV in that country, one linked to camel exposure.
Wild birds in Denmark and Switzerland test positive for H5N8, while H5N1 hits Nigeria and H5N6 strikes South Korea.
In the past few weeks, 8 European nations, plus India and Israel, have confirmed H5N8, mainly in migratory waterfowl.
The strain has also been detected farther west in Europe in wild birds in Switzerland, as well as in Germany.
China is reporting two new H7N9 avian influenza infections, the first since July. The new cases potentially mark the start of the fifth wave of infections.
The virus is spreading south and west as experts predicted after the H5 clade was discovered in Russia in June.
Austrian officials said H5N8 had also been found in Croatia, which would raise the number of countries affected in Europe to five.
