The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) today (February 4) received notification of 49 additional human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) in the past six weeks from the National Health and Family Planning Commission and Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangdong Province , and again urged the public to maintain strict personal, food and environmental hygiene both locally and during travel.

     The patients comprise 38 men and 11 women aged from one to 88 and nine of them (eight men and one woman) died. 30 cases are from Fujian, 10 from Zhejiang, seven from Jiangsu, one from Guangdong and one from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang).

     To date, 555 human cases of avian influenza A(H7N9) have been reported by the Mainland health authorities, respectively in Zhejiang (156 cases), Guangdong (145 cases), Jiangsu (70 cases), Fujian (58 cases), Shanghai (44 cases), Hunan (24 cases), Anhui (17 cases), Xinjiang (10 cases), Jiangxi (nine cases), Shandong (six cases), Beijing (five cases), Henan (four cases), Guangxi (three cases), Jilin (two cases), Guizhou (one case) and Hebei (one case).