Human case of bird flu reported in Hong Kong

Health authorities in Hong Kong have been put on alert after the city’s first human case of bird flu in seven years, the Wall Street Journal reported. York Chow, Hong Kong’s secretary for food and health, said the risk of avian flu in Hong Kong is "not significantly higher than before." Officials are still trying to determine if the 59-year-old woman who tested positive for influenza A (H5), a variant of the avian flu, contracted the disease within Hong Kong itself or during her 10-day trip on the mainland prior to falling ill. The last case of human infection was in 2003 and since then several cases have appeared on the mainland, sparking mass culls of poultry stocks.