A 29-year-old man who contracted bird flu last month in southwest China's Guizhou Province has recovered and was released from the hospital Friday after 22 days of treatment.

The patient, surnamed Zhou, no longer exhibits any symptoms and has remained in stable condition for a couple of days, said Sun Zhaolin, head of the hospital where Zhou was treated.

Zhou was hospitalized for fever on Jan. 15. Before that, he purchased and killed a duck from a farm product market.

He began to show symptoms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) including coughing, phlegm and skin discoloration. X-rays and CT scans showed he suffered rapid development of pneumonia.

The hospital started emergency treatment and quarantined the patient before he tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza on Jan. 25.

"The disease can be prevented and cured if it is discovered at an early stage," said Gao Zhancheng, a senior doctor of Beijing sent by the Ministry of Health to treat Zhou.

China reported eight bird flu cases this year that resulted in five deaths. The eight cases included a 19-year-old woman in Beijing on Jan. 5, a 27-year-old woman in Shandong on Jan. 17, a 16-year-old male student from Guizhou Province on Jan. 19, a 31-year-old woman in Xinjiang on Jan. 23 and an 18-year-old man in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Jan. 26.

In addition to Zhou, a 3-year-old girl from Shanxi Province was discharged from hospital Tuesday and a 21-year-old woman in Hunan Province was in a stable condition.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2009)