China's eighth bird flu patient is recovering, local hospital said Saturday.

The six-year-old patient in central China's Hunan Province now can walk by himself and stopped using oxygen apparatus as he is breathing with no difficulty, and the result of blood gas analysis is normal, said doctors with the Hunan Provincial Children's Hospital.

The boy, surnamed Ouyang, has resumed normal dietetic appetency, doctors said.

The boy was confirmed on Jan. 9 to have been infected with H5N1 bird flu. He suffered serious damages on both lungs at the beginning.

Ouyang had fever and pneumonia symptoms on Dec. 24. He was transferred to the Children's Hospital on Jan. 11 and has been under round-the-clock monitoring since then.

China reported nine human cases of bird flu this winter. Six of them died.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2006)