China's Ministry of Health announced on January 9 the country's eighth human case of H5N1 bird flu, a 6-year-old boy surnamed Ouyang in Guiyang County, central China's Hunan Province.

The boy has been hospitalized and his condition is stable, the ministry said.

Investigations found that domestic foul raised by Ouyang's family had died before he showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia on December 24, the ministry said.

Ouyang's blood and body fluid samples, collected by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of China, tested positive for the H5N1 virus according to World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese government standards, the ministry said.

Local health authorities have taken measures to check the spread of the virus. Persons who had close contact with the boy are under strict medical observation, but no abnormal clinical symptoms have been found in them so far.

The Chinese health ministry has informed the WHO, China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and several other countries of the new case.

Previously, the ministry had reported seven human cases of bird flu, including two fatalities in east China's Anhui Province, one fatality in southeast China's Fujian Province, two who recovered in central China's Hunan Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province respectively, one in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and one in the eastern province of Jiangxi.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2006)