Vice Health Minister Wang Longde confirmed yesterday that the bird flu virus in China has not mutated into a human virus and is as yet not transmissible among humans.

"The strain of the virus detected in China is still of the avian variety and will not induce people-to-people transmission," Wang said after attending a panel discussion of lawmakers from the northwestern province of Shaanxi on the sidelines of the ongoing Fourth Plenary Session of the National People's Congress (NPC).

As of March 7, 15 Chinese people had been infected with the disease, among whom 10 have died.

The latest casualty was a nine-year-old girl from east China's Zhejiang Province who died on March 6.

Pandemic control expert, Zhong Nanshan, said that the avian flu is being passed to humans through live poultry and other animals.

"An urgent task is to give the issue nationwide publicity," Zhong said.

On the other hand, Zhong said that people should not be overly worried about the spread of the virus. "The majority of people are not sensitive to the current strain of the virus."

Globally, 175 human cases including 95 deaths had been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of March 6, according to information published on the WHO website.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2006)